Sugar firm predicting profit from 2004 crop

THE 2004 sugar cane crop will end on June 11 with the Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd (SMCL) satisfying the EU quota of 44,000 tonnes of sugar. This year, after Government’s Restructuring Programme of Caroni (1975) Ltd in 2003, the SMCL was appointed to purchase and grind sugar cane from farmers. SMCL chairman Prem Nandlal said that originally the target was 60,000 tonnes of sugar but that figure had to be revised because of problems experienced at the beginning of the crop.

“We then set a new target of 44,000 tonnes which we have almost produced  to date. In fact the present figure is 42,000 tonnes and by the end of the crop on June 11,  we should reach the 44,000 tonnes,” he said. Nandlal said with the EU quota at US$620 per tonne,  TT would earn approximately $173,000,000. Farmers contributed about 500,000 tonnes of cane and Caroni 100,000 tonnes to produce that amount of sugar, he explained. Nandlal said TT also supplies sugar to the United States but that was a yearly  allocation rather than a stipulated quota. He said efforts  would still be made to send some of the allocation to the US.

According to the SMCL chairman, there were a few minor mechanical breakdowns  at the Usine Ste Madeleine Factory which were resolved “with urgent dispatch” so that in the end the crop was “reasonably successful just as we had targetted.” He said the company planned to do a substantial overhaul at the factory in preparation for the 2005 crop to ensure that everything is in place for “a major shot in the arm for the revitalised sugar industry.”

Nandlal said this year’s crop was achieved without a major subsidy from Government  as had been the case in previous years, “so that by the end of the crop we should be declaring a profit for the country.” He said some 400 employees were on the payroll at the Usine Ste Madeleine Factory, the majority of whom were former employees of Caroni (1975) Ltd. “We have learned a great deal during this transition period and the lessons will be very useful and helpful in shaping next year’s crop, which we are certain will avoid the pitfalls that we faced this year.” Nandlal said by August cane farmers will get full payment based on a rate of $180,000 per tonne of cane supplied for the 2004 crop.