Rose Hall Estate to begin grinding by month-end

The Rose Hall Sugar Estate in East Canje Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), will commence grinding by the end of February 2024.
Some 2500 hectares of sugar cane are to be harvested for the factory to start its production, but Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said an additional crop for the estate would be available by mid-March, and Government would only then be able to set a 2024 production target for Rose Hall.
He disclosed that rehabilitation and maintenance works would commence shortly at the factory, following the passing of this year’s $1.146 trillion fiscal package, which included a sum of $2 billion for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to undertake works and purchase new equipment for Rose Hall.
The minister provided this information to the National Assembly on Wednesday while making remarks on day two of the Consideration of the 2024 Budget estimates of revenue and expenditure. Specifically, he was responding to extensive queries about the operations of GuySuCo by Opposition Parliamentarian Vinceroy Jordan, who sought answers about operations of the Rose Hall Estate, the availability of crop, and monies expended on the factory’s reopening.
Jordan also inquired about the $50 million set aside in 2024 budget for construction of roads in the area. He asked: “Mr Chair, can I ask the honourable minister whether all the boilers are operable at the Rose Hall Estate? And if they are at this time…what was the total cost for the rehabilitative works after the $549 million was spent?”
Minister Mustapha, in defending the money set aside for Rose Hall, noted that the factory would play a viable role in helping Guyana to ramp up its sugar production and assist in achieving Vision 25 by 2025.
He also remined the National Assembly that the reason why sums of money had to be expended to rehabilitate the factory is because the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government had closed the estate and let it fall into disrepair.
“Mr Chair, like other estates, sugar factories that were left to the mercy of nature, we had to spend a lot of money…those parts that the honourable member mentioned, things like boiler, you will repair the boiler, but during the course of grinding, you might find a leakage and have to repair it (again); and that will be a continuous process. Those baskets that he talks about, yes, all were repaired…They caused it! They closed the estate! They caused it to rot! They caused people of this country — they caused tax payers nine billion dollars to be spent to rehabilitate and bring back the Rose Hall Estate into production,” the minister declared.

<<Rose Hall Estate closure, reopening>>
The Rose Hall Sugar Easter in East Canje Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), was closed in 2017 by the then coalition Government, A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).
When the estate was closed, there were some 2500 workers at the Rose Hall Estate, 1181 of whom were retrenched, while the remainder were transferred to Blairmont and Albion Estates.
GuySuCo subsequently issued a statement saying that the workers were no longer required to go to Rose Hall and work.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), while in Opposition, had promised that should it be successful at the 2020 elections, it would reopen the closed Rose Hall Sugar Estate.
This promise was fulfilled when the estate recommenced operating in September 2023.
According to Mustapha, harvesters from the Albion Estate are harvesting canes for the Rose Hall Estate, and in excess of 130 tonnes of sugar has already been produced.