Agriculture Minister debunks Opposition claims over refurbished Rose Hall Estate
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Kaieteur News – Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha has debunked claims by the Opposition that the refurbished Rose Hall Estate has not been able to produce any sugar.
Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha
Opposition Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Vinceroy Jordan
Opposition Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Vinceroy Jordan released a statement on Wednesday challenging the Agriculture Minister to make public the production amount and cost of the refurbished Rose Hall Estate. He said there was no production at the estate.
Describing the claim by Jordan as “wild and foolish,” Mustapha revealed that “Rose Hall Sugar Factory has already produced 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar,” within weeks of returning to operation.
Mustapha noted however, there were some issues that prevented the factory from continuing production. “There was some issues there today but if you check with GuySuCo they should be able to tell you that they would be up and running soon,” he said.
Jordan, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the combined A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) said in the statement that while Mustapha had previously expressed optimism that the Rose Hall Estate would return to production with an estimated output of some 60,000 metric tons of sugar by the end of the final crop in 2023, the factory has not reported any production.
While challenging the minister to release the production reports, Jordan pointed some of the issues plaguing the now-rehabilitated Rose Hall sugar factory.
According to the Opposition MP, mechanical failures are many across the factory in addition to the boilers losing steam very often.
Jordan claims that there have been many stoppages in grinding, to the point where there is now a complete temporary shutdown.
He noted that, “There are major leakages on steam pipes and Centrifugal baskets. Hundreds of thousands if not millions have already been spent on chips and feeder wood for the boiler and the juice is not crystalizing hence, grains are not forming. The factory is presently overheating at various points.”
“Also, the workforce is under tremendous pressure stemming from an inexperienced workforce and shortages of technical and field workers.
I challenge the Minister of Agriculture and GuySuCo to make full public disclosure of sugar production and operation costs thus far at the Rose Hall Sugar Factory.”
Added to this, Jordan noted that while the entity continues to fail, the government plugged over $30 billion in subvention from the national treasury from the time it took office in August 2020 to 2022 into the industry.
He said there is yet to be a final number in addition to over $5 billion which has been plugged into the industry thus far for the year 2023.
