SANTO DOMINGO.–  President Leonel Fernandez should give the go-ahead to build a plant to process sugar cane to produce ethanol, at a cost of $148 million, said Tuesday a growers union, mill workers and the companies involved in the project.

The president of the company Conazucar, Miguel A. Santana, said though the government agreed to lease three sugar mills including the one in Boca Chica, Fernandez later asked that they be returned, when on February 27 he announced a similar project by the sugar companies Central Romana and Grupo Vicini, the country’s two largest producers.

Speaking for the group which affirms would also produce 60 million liters of ethanol and 27 megawatts of electricity annually, Santana said the facilities would provide around 3,000 jobs for the three mills’ former employees. “Mister president, please prevent the collapse of hundreds of small and medium companies which live off supplying those mills. Thousands of jobs which depend on us will be lost if we go bankrupt.”

Alex Rood, another member of the group who held the press conference, agreed that the situation had become “another can of worms,” since the impasse keeps the ambitious project form going forward and also keeps the thousands of now out-of-work sugar mill workers from getting jobs. “This is an umbrella situation, we have the money, Alfy Fanjul (of Central Romana) thought they could get the mills free and clear, but their lawyers have seen otherwise. The CEA (government sugar council) reneged on the deal, but by that time, the president had already made his pledge (to Central Romana).”

Rood, president of Bioethanol Boca Chica, one of the companies in the planned project, spoke with Dominican Today by telephone Wednesday. He added that the impasse came about with changes in the laws regarding government contracts, including those which are part of the DR-Cafta trade deal.

Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Central Romana’s Public Relations department said it wouldn’t comment for now.

Dominican Republic’s sugar output has declined annually from 805,556 tons in 1982 to as low as 170,030 in 1998, the last year data is available in the government agency’s Web site (cea.gov.do).