est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Cane Industry Restructuring Project (CIRP) and River Tamarind

sugarThe government of Barbados by its recent decision appears to be committed to the $250 million Cane Industry Restructuring Project (CIRP). The goal of the project is to integrate the existing sugar industry into the emerging renewable energy project Barbados has ambitiously undertaken to diversify energy needs. Barbadian taxpayers are always the last to be informed about the finer points of public sector projects. One question which keeps surfacing is what part river tamarind will play in the new enterprise. Tony ‘Kite’ Gibbs in a comment on another blog made the following intervention.

Permit me if you please to analyze the ‘facts’ surrounding the CIRP  currently in the public domain and hopefully shed a little light on the burning issues.

  • 25 MW of electricity generated, 65 MW of waste heat suggest an input of 85MW and system efficiency of 30%.
  • 30,000 tonnes of sugar suggest 330,000 tones of cane and 100,000 tons of bagasse of which 33% will be used internally for process steam and electricity. 67% will be converted to electricity that will be exported to the grid.

This level of exported electricity from bagasse is equivalent to an average of 5.4 MW. This means that approximately 17MW will be required from river tamarind. To acquire 17MW of power from river tamarind requires approximately 150,000 tons of river tamarind.

Based on the best agronomic practices, it is possible to get 100 tons per hectare for fuel crops such as river tamarind with the proper plant spacing. These crops have a 3-5 year cycle. The best we can get from sugar cane currently is 20 tons per acre.

When BL&P looked at this project back in 2012, their costings were based on a reference or base price of BDS$10 per million BTU’s for locally produced biomass. This works out to about BDS$120 per ton. This means that bagasse and by extension river tamarind would be worth more per ton to the farmers that the $60 per ton they are getting for sugar cane.

Finally, for those who would listen this is not a cane industry restructuring project but first and foremost an energy project. Barbados no longer has a sugarcane industry.

61 responses to “Cane Industry Restructuring Project (CIRP) and River Tamarind”

  1. Norst the Invader Avatar
    Norst the Invader

    Where next should he locate a Hoodies?

  2. Norst the Invader Avatar
    Norst the Invader

    Sugar consultants issue warning to Sinckler
    Added by Emmanuel Joseph on March 12, 2015.
    Saved under Agriculture, Local News

    The much-touted Barbados Cane Industry Restructuring Project (BCIRP) tonight appears to be facing a serious threat.

    The Inter-Sugar Partnership (ISP), which negotiated a $70 million sugar bond with Ansa Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago for the project, is casting blame on Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler.

    The problem reportedly stems from efforts by Sinckler to change a May 15, 2013 Cabinet decision which directed that the bond money be used to fund the field side of the BCIRP and also its advance financing requirements.

    In addition to that, a letter from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Esworth Reid, dated February 27, 2015, reminded the chairman of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) that “the funds borrowed are to be managed by the Barbados Cane Industry Corporation (BCIC), the Government entity charged with responsibility to implement the restructuring of the project.”

    Speaking to Barbados TODAY from the United Kingdom, Edward Marston, an ISP director, was adamant that the island’s sugar industry would die if Sinckler succeeded in redirecting the proceeds of the bond to satisfy an outstanding debt by the BAMC.

    “The effect of what would happen, if the Minister of Finance is successful, is that out of a bond proceeds of $31 million net, for which $12 million have been left with the BAMC to pay the farmers that the Prime Minister promised . . . approximately $19 million (remained) which was transferred to Barbados Cane Industry Corporation, because that is the entity that has been charged by Cabinet with responsibility to undertake this project,” Marston noted.

    “My understanding is that the inter-financial arrangement that the Minister of Finance is seeking to rely on, which is that funds are due back to the Treasury (amounting to) $17 million. So out of $19 million that went to BCIC, the Minister of Finance is requesting that $17 million be sent back to the Treasury. That would leave the BCIC with roughly $2 million,” he added.

    Marston pointed out that the BCIC cannot refund the $17 million because it has had to deduct four or five million from the $19 million to pay over to BAMC to start this year’s sugar crop. He said: “The only money left at BCIC now is $15 million for which the Minister of Finance is saying he is entitled to $17 million.”

    Marston added: “If the Minister of Finance is successful in getting the Cabinet of Barbados or whoever else to agree to this new adoption, it in essence means that the Government’s BCIRP Project is dead by default.”

    “Not a nickel (would be left) to advance the due diligence with the funders, no money to pay Bosh, the engineering constructors, no money to pay the demolition which is a precondition to the funding [nor] the environmental assessment.”

    Ian Rogers, another ISP director who participated in the interview, cautioned that the “most fundamental fallout” would adversely affect farmers. “But more fundamentally,” he stressed, “(there would be) no money to pay the balance of payment that would be due to the farmers for the 2015 crop, contrary to promises made by the Prime Minister that this year’s crop would be paid for in full”.

    Rogers noted that what the Minister of Finance was asking would also go against the basis on which Ansa Merchant Bank raised the $70 million loan in the first place.

    In a letter written to the General Manager of BAMC, Leslie Parris, dated February 23, 2015, and signed by Gia Howell for the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Parris was instructed to settle a previous debt from the money received from Ansa Merchant Bank.

    “I am directed to inform you that the Minister of Finance has advised that the advances related to salaries, wages, vacation pay and payments to SOL Barbados [Simpson Oil Limited] and the overseas supplier Czarnikov made to BAMC, will be reimbursed to the Treasury from the proceeds of the $32 million loan from Ansa Merchant Bank,” the letter read.

    ”Please have the necessary loan agreement between the BAMC and the Government of Barbados drawn up to facilitate the reimbursement to the Treasury from the proceeds of this loan,” it concluded.

    In reply to the Minister of Finance’s request, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Esworth Reid, wrote on February 27, 2015 “the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management has instructed the Permanent Secretary to convey the…position to the principals of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company Limited for their guidance and compliance, because your request as instructed by the Minister of Finance, appears counter to the decision of the Cabinet.”

    When contacted, Sinckler said he had no comment to make on the matter.

    emmanueljoseph

  3. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    This is the kind of thing one sees when government officials are just puppets who are owned and controlled by secret private interests.
    Sounds a lot like the arrangement that David Thompson would have made to divert CLICO funds to his master Parris when it became clear that the bottom was falling from the CLICO barrel……

    Thank God that BU will provide the needed transparency so that we can all see the dirty wash when the public laundry begins….

  4. are-we-there-yet Avatar
    are-we-there-yet

    Wunnah hear dah gust o wind from the perfect storm?

  5. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    David

    Seems we are no clearer to a start date……hmmmmmm

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    Looking like April, is it worth it though?

    On Thursday, 12 March 2015, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  7. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    re Seems we are no clearer to a start date

    the start date is april 1 off course ———-all fools day!

  8. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    @David March 12, 2015 at 5:19 PM #

    No……we have an interesting stand off

  9. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Do we have a Minister of Agriculture,or do we really have a Minister of Construction?
    Somebody’s Crop will start when the new Sugar Factory starts construction.

  10. Stephen McLeash Avatar
    Stephen McLeash

    Buggy
    a minister of agriculture who gets things done than others couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

  11. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Stephen McLeash March 13, 2015 at 3:08 PM #
    ……………………………………………………………………..
    For example ???????????????

Older Comments
1 2

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading