Lacassine Syrup Mill Begins Grinding Cane, Closed to Media

By PATRICK COURREGES

The state-built sugar cane syrup mill in Lacassine apparently started its first harvest-season grinding Thursday, though the ownership group running it was not allowing any inquisitive press on site to see how it’s going.

The Jefferson Davis Parish mill never ran during the 2005 harvest, which was supposed to be its first year, and is trailing the opening of the rest of the state’s mills by more than a month this year.

State Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom began arranging for the financing and construction of the mill in 2003, before selling it this fall to the Lake Charles Cane Cooperative farmers group, which later brought a company from Colombia – Cementos Andino – into the agreement.

The Colombian company – bearing the names Andino Sugar Development and Andino Energy Enterprises in its Louisiana incarnation – holds 80 percent ownership of the mill, with the cooperative holding the other 20 percent.

Willie Danos, head of the cooperative, said Wednesday that the first cane trucks were setting up on site for a Thursday start of processing, but denied a request by The Advocate for entry onto the property.

“It’s visible from the road,” he said.

Danos said the mill managers are planning to hold a “media day” on the site in the near future.

Odom said that, while the state holds the mortgage on the mill, it is legally the property of the ownership group and he does not have the power to override the group’s wishes on the matter.

The state and the mill ownership group signed off on the final part of the deal Nov. 2 – a deal that requires the mill partners to apply for permits for a new ethanol plant within 15 days of signing and to begin construction of that plant within one year of permit approval.

Odom’s stated intent throughout the process of pushing for the financing and construction of the syrup mill has been to see an ethanol plant built on the site.

If the partnership cannot secure the permits for the Lacassine site, it has until 2010 to begin construction on an ethanol plant somewhere else in Louisiana.

Should the group fail to begin construction of the ethanol plant in the required time, the state takes the mill back.

According to the signed deal – a lease-sale hybrid – the partnership will pay $100,000 a year for four years for the right to operate the mill, then begin covering the state’s payments of the money borrowed to build it.

The Andino company has committed to investing about $60 million in the ethanol plant, which would operate under the same 80-20 Andino/cooperative ownership arrangement as the mill, Odom said.

The published sale price of the mill is $60 million, and the state retains ownership of the land it sits on.

Odom arranged for an initial borrowing of $45 million to finance construction – backed and being paid by the Agriculture Department’s share of state gambling revenue – then a further $7 million in loan guarantees after the mill failed to make its planned 2005 sugar harvest opening date because of mechanical problems and Hurricane Rita.

The mill never ran during the 2005 harvest season, and about 3,000 acres of the 7,000 acres of cane slated to be processed in Lacassine had to be mowed down in the field, while the rest went to other mills.

Danos said the mill is expected to process about 7,000 acres of sugar cane this year.

Odom said several officers with the Andino company – owned by the Santacoloma family – have already purchased homes in the Lake Charles area.

He said that, should anything go wrong or the Colombian company attempt to bolt on its obligations, the cooperative would still be liable for debts owed.

Odom said his staff checked the background of the company thoroughly before entering into the deal.

Andino is not the first corporate entity to promise an ethanol plant on the site.

A company known as Supercritical Recovery Systems had signed a deal to build an ethanol plant at Lacassine, but the symbolic groundbreaking was the only thing that ever happened on the site.

Odom later filed suit against the company, alleged that it defaulted on its lease agreement.

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