Contract for Enmore Packaging Plant sealed

On June 05, 2009, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) and Surendra Engineering Company Limited (an Indian Company) ,signed an agreement to construct a packaging plant and upgrading the factory at Enmore Estate in the sum of G$2.4B (US$12M). The state-of-the-art packaging plant is slated for completion in September, 2010, while upgrade of the processing house is expected to be completed by February, 2011.

The project entitled “Project Gold”, is the first sugar project to be supported financially under the Guyana National Action Plan (GNAP). It is expected that further inflow of capital to the sugar industry will be forthcoming from disbursements from the European Union (EU) to the Guyana Government arising from the GNAP

Since the submission of the GNAP in 2006 and establishment of Financing Agreements between the Government of Guyana and the EU, funding in the form of fixed and variable tranches have been received for budget support. Release of funds is contingent to Guyana’s compliance to an annual set of indicators in both the sugar sector and the macro-economy.

The Packaging Plant will utilize the total sugar output of 40,000 tonnes from the Enmore sugar factory, to deliver high quality branded direct consumption sugars for the retail trade. GuySuCo currently produces 8,000 tonnes of packaged sugar at Blairmont and demand far exceeds supply at encouraging prices.

Guysuco, from its experience with the Skeldon II project which suffered from delays, must scrupulously monitor this new project to ensure that timelines are adhered to.