WESTERN BUREAU — General manager at the Hampden Estate in Trelawny, Maurice Jackson said approximately $20 million is being spent to rehabilitate the factory in time for the 2002 sugar crop.

“Already we have spent over $2 million on repairs and we expect that by mid-January the repairs will be completed. The mill rolls have been taken down and sent to Caribbean Casting for overhauling, and we are in the process of pulling down other parts for repairs,” Jackson noted.

He added that repair work is also under-way on the carriers and the boilers.

Last crop, production of sugar at Hampden was adversely affected by the frequent breakdown of factory equipment. The company lost in excess of 58 per cent of its production time, and this was attributed primarily to problems with its generators.

Jackson said however, that he does not envisage that the factory will have any problems with its generators next crop.

“During last crop, we spent over $5 million on our generators. We replaced the alternator in the unit that went down in June, and we now have a stand-by generator in place, so we won’t have that sort of problem,” Jackson added.

Hampden failed to meet its production target of 9,000 tonnes of sugar last crop. The factory produced just over 7,000 of the product, from the manufacture of 85,500 tonnes of cane.

For the 2002 crop, Hampden has set itself a target of 8,980 tonnes.

“We are optimistic that we can achieve this target. Already, there are signs that the crop will be good. Last year, we planted 600 acres of cane, which will reach maturity next crop, and we are putting in another 200 acres this year,” Jackson stated. “In addition, we are giving more attention to husbandry practices and so the fields are going to yield more cane.”

Meanwhile Jackson said the receiver at Hampden Estate, John Lee, is yet to find a buyer for the property which was placed into receivership in 1999 by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac) after the estate chalked up millions of dollars in losses.

He added that while the receiver has had many people expressing interest in acquiring the property, a deal is yet to been made.