Sugar giant has sweet dreams
A colossal sugar mill in Preah Vihear province will roar to life again next week, promising to devour 1 million tonnes of sugarcane in a two-month production run that is expected to yield 100,000 tonnes of refined white sugar, as well as a sizeable chunk of surplus electricity, a company representative said on February 5. Rui Feng (Cambodia) International’s sugar mill and refinery, built at a cost of $360 million, opened last April for a limited initial production run that processed just 10,000 tonnes of sugarcane – about half a day’s work for the monster-sized mill. Kuy Yoeurn, an administrative manager for the company, said the factory will start up production again in mid-February with a far more ambitious production target to match its much-larger supply of raw materials. He said the second run will last 50 to 60 days, processing a total of 1 million tonnes of sugar cane, as well as a large quantity of electricity generated from the factory’s byproducts.
