Bump in the road for Irish Sugar
TOP level meetings are taking place to plan the logistics of bringing mountains of beet that would have been processed at the now closed Carlow Sugar Factory to the Irish Sugar company’s sole remaining plant in Mallow by road. Irish Sugar planned to bring two-thirds of that beet to Mallow by rail and some by road.
A new rail depot, similar to one in Wellingtonbridge, Co Wexford, was to have been established at Bagnealstown, Co Carlow, to facilitate the operation. But the proposal fell through. Now, there are alternative plans, which have yet to be formally announced, to develop a rail head at a different Co Carlow location, Milford, to bring that beet to Mallow for an extended 120-day processing campaign beginning in September. But delays have occurred with the planning for that depot, although Irish Sugar, part of Greencore, stressed that arrangements for establishing a railhead in the Carlow area are continuing. There is a growing acceptance, however, that the Milford depot will not be ready in time for this year’s campaign and that some 450,000 tonne of beet from the Carlow factory catchment will have to be brought to Mallow by road.
