Central Romana Announces the end of the 2024 harvest and the payment of RD$939 million in bonuses to workers

The company also made public an agreement with EDEESTE to invest more than RD$60 million pesos in the infrastructure of the distribution network to provide electricity to several agricultural communities that did not have this service.

La Romana. – Central Romana Corporation, Ltd. reported that its sugar mill ended the 2023-2024 harvest with a milling of 2 million 765 thousand short tons of cane, achieving a production of about 287,565 short tons of sugar.

Although this amount exceeds the production of the previous harvest by almost 22 thousand tons, the figure is below the stipulated projection due to the setbacks caused by the intense rains that took place at the beginning of the second quarter of this year.

However, the mill managed to produce more than 156 thousand short tons of refined sugar and about 19 million gallons of molasses, guaranteeing the supply for consumption in the local market, the company said in a press release.

“We faced great challenges during this harvest, mainly due to the low yield of sugarcane due to an excess of water as a result of the copious downpours that affected the eastern region and much of the national territory,” Central Romana said in the note sent to the media.

Another great challenge that the company’s engineers and agronomists also took on was to increase mechanization in the cutting of sugarcane, “managing to mechanize 55% of the agricultural process with the combined implementation of modern harvesters and loaders in the field,” as reported by Central Romana in the note. “This entailed a special dedication in the training of our personnel for the optimal handling of the equipment and also in the phase of adaptation to the soils due to the irregularity of the terrain,” said the company.

Central Romana also reported that it paid RD$939 million pesos in bonuses to all workers in the agricultural and industrial area, as part of the salary benefits agreed in the Collective Agreement with the United Union of Workers of the aforementioned sugar mill. Despite the current situation of the harvest and the impediment to selling sugar to the United States, the amount paid maintained the same parameter established with the Union when exporting is contemplated.

Central Romana Corporation also announced the signing of an agreement with Empresa Distribuidora de Electricidad del Este (EDEESTE) to invest more than RD$60 million pesos in the construction of the electricity distribution network infrastructure that will provide energy to several agricultural communities where workers reside in homes owned by the company.

“We have been negotiating this agreement with EDEESTE for a long time and we have finally signed the contract to bring energy to several rural communities that did not have access to this service due to lack of power lines and that will directly benefit about two thousand people,” the company said in the note.

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