The Free Zaharul Luduş SA union informs that it was announced, on Wednesday, by the management of the Luduş Sugar Factory, Tereos Romania SA, that the plan to liquidate and demolish the facility is continuing, after the Romanian state allegedly withdrew from the negotiations and did not found buyer.
“We send you this address as a last cry of despair and at the same time as a request to try to save one of the two functional sugar factories in Romania, the Luduş Sugar Factory, Mureş County. You gave us a lot of hope and joy in the spring, when we were informed that the State, together with the farmers in the area, was going to take over the Sugar Factory. We thought that after 32 years of being destroyed, we, the Romanians, would also manage to save something, but today, 28.09.2022, we were informed that Tereos Romania SA is continuing its plan to liquidate and demolish the Luduş Sugar Factory, that The state withdrew and in the end no buyer was found”, said the Free Zaharul Luduş Trade Union, in a press release sent to Agerpres.
The trade unionists say that, in the midst of a food crisis and with a war on the border, Romania would authorize the destruction of a functional factory, as well as sugar beet producers.
“Our opinion: we are in a continuous war for 32 years, a silent war, which Romania is losing slowly, knowingly, in favor of speculators and so-called foreign investors. We no longer have mills to produce flour, we no longer have oil factories, we no longer have refineries, we no longer have industry. Instead of Romanian industry, malls and neighborhoods were built, where we can stay and where we can take the money earned from foreign investors, money that leaves the country, does not stay in Romania. In the midst of a food crisis and with a war on the northern border of the country, we authorize the destruction of a perfectly functional factory, with employees specialized in the sugar industry and efficient beet producers. Please, once again, find a solution to save the Sugar Factory from Luduş”, it is mentioned in the press release signed by the president of the Luduş SA Free Sugar Union, Ioan Trif.
In the Government meeting of May 4, 2022, a Memorandum was approved by which the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had been mandated to start negotiations to maintain the activity of the sugar factory in Luduş – SC Tereos RO SA.
The mandate took place in the context of the decision announced by the Tereos Group, which owns one of the last two factories processing beet sugar in Romania, to close the factory located in Luduş, which has been operating for over 60 years.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) announced, at the end of May, that it had meetings with the management of the Tereos Romania company, to present the constituted negotiation team and to establish a calendar regarding the takeover of the Luduş sugar factory.
“I convey to you the firm commitment of the Romanian state to complete this process. It is necessary to inventory the goods, the assets, to start the necessary audits as well as the preparation of related documents, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force. We buy the factory to produce sugar in partnership with the farmers. We want to resume the production cycle and activity in the factory as soon as possible, especially in the international context of the sugar market”, declared the Minister of Agriculture at that time, Adrian Chesnoiu, in a press release sent to Agerpres.
For his part, Francois Queva, CEO of Tereos Romania, denied all the rumors circulating in the public space related to the closure of the factory, noting that the commitment made before the minister, as early as April, regarding the availability of the sale of this production unit to the Romanian state remained unchanged . Also, the representative of the French company emphasized that no component of the factory was dismantled, decommissioned or sold, the MADR press release from May showed.
According to the MADR information from that moment, both parties agreed on a timetable for taking over the investment, taking into account the need to save jobs for the staff employed in the Luduş sugar factory.
Until the year 2021, the sugar obtained from sugar beet grown in Romania has ensured approximately 25% of the domestic consumption requirement of 500,000 tons of sugar/year.
(www.agerpres.ro)
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