US$12.5M Enmore Packaging Plant lies idle

- as GuySuCo scrambles to fill demands for raw sugar

The Enmore Packaging Plant, which was set up to sweeten the sugar corporation with 35% more gains than it would get for raw sugar, is currently resting idle.

Yudhisthir Persaud

Managers at the Enmore estate told Kaieteur News that the packaging plant is not in operation because the sugar currently being produced is meant for export by bulk.

The government paid the Indian company, Surendra Engineering Corporation, US$12.5 million to construct the plant. The intention was to package all of the sugar produced at Enmore for sale locally and overseas.

For the first crop of this year, Estate Manager Yudhisthir Persaud said the factory produced approximately 21,000 tonnes of sugar, and most of that went to the packaging plant.

However, for the current crop, no sugar has been sent for packaging at the plant, and Persaud told Kaieteur News that he is not sure when they will receive those orders.

Factory Manager Akbar Ally said that the permanent workers at the plant are sent off to perform various functions in the factory when the plant is not in operation. Temporary staff, mainly from the Enmore area, is employed once the plant is in operation.

The plant was commissioned in May 2011. It was announced then that the intention was for the plant to package 40,000 tonnes of sugar per year.

The factory was constructed during the tenure of Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud. There were queries about the cost and Minister Persaud actually agreed to a forensic audit. This audit never got going because Guyana Sugar Corporation recanted.

Where’s the sugar? Plant machinery not being used.

Akbar Ally