Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sugar beet is sweet deal for New Ross – O’ Connell

The Chairperson of County Wexford Sinn Féin has renewed his call for the construction of a state of the art sugar beet processing plant in New Ross.  Speaking at last week’s Bannow-Rathangan agricultural show, Oisin O’ Connell said that now was the time to push New Ross as the ideal location for the plant which would create 5000 new jobs ahead of the likely end of the current quota system in 2018.

Mr O’ Connell said;

“Though we recently witnessed Minister Coveney cave to EU demands to allow for the continuation of the current sugar beet quota system until 2018, the time is still ripe to push New Ross as the ideal location for the construction of a state of the art bio refinery plant for the production of sugar and ethanol from sugar beet and grain.  A study carried out by former beet farmers in the last few years named our district as one of the prime locations for the resurrection of the south east’s sugar beet industry and it seems to me that we have everything needed to make this a success within the confines of New Ross.”

“Certainly we have the available workforce.  Unemployment has plagued South Wexford since 2008.  This plant could create 5000 new jobs as well as providing an incredible economic boost for the whole community.  Sometimes people forget what a profitable industry sugar beet is.  It wasn’t dubbed white gold for nothing, and it’s a well known fact that Greencore were making huge profits when they decided to give up our last quota and close their beet processing plants nearly ten years ago.”

“Feasibility studies carried out indicate that a new processing plant would be profitable within the first year.  There are those who would say that such a plant could not be built and that former sugar beet farmers have no interest in seeing the industry return but Sinn Féin believes different.  We have spoken to many of these ex beet growers and people who were involved in the sector over the past year and the general consensus is that this could only be beneficial for New Ross and the whole south east.”

No comments:

Post a Comment