GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government says it will build a sugar refinery at the Enmore Estate, East Coast Demerara, which has been closed since 2018.
“We have an investor, who is in the final stage of an investment decision soon, to convert the Enmore sugar estate that is now closed into a sugar refinery,” President Irfaan Ali told the annual dinner of the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) on Monday night.
Ali did not name the investor but said the Enmore facility could refine up to 180,000 metric tonnes of brown sugar annually.
Guyana is projecting to increase brown sugar production to 100,000 tonnes annually starting this year. President Ali said that this meant Guyana would have to import some refined sugar.
“Whatever we can supply, we’ll supply, then we’ll have to fill the gap, so refining will occur here,” he said, adding that the facility is expected to provide opportunities for “hundreds of upskilled jobs.”
The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) had, in 2019, commissioned a study to determine whether Plantation White sugar could be used as a substitute for white sugar.
However, the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) later protested plans by Belize to seek a 40 percent Common External Tariff (CET) on extra-regionally produced refined sugar.
“If manufacturers were to use plantation white instead of refined sugar, for reasons of quality, products will no longer be as acceptable to consumers and will not be able to compete based on quality with products coming into the region,” the GMSA said then.
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