Sugar Production
Sugar production has been and continues being the cornerstone of the Central Romana Corporation’s operations, giving the company vast opportunities to venture out into other projects with great positive impact on the national economy.
CUT & HAUL OF SUGAR CANE
As of the year 1990 the Central Romana Corporation embarked on an intensive program of mechanization in the cut and haul of cane. Through its mechanization process it has achieved the ability to harvest almost autonomously over 50 percent of its sugar fields, minimizing the dependency on foreign labor and increasing safety.
The goal of the company is to continue the mechanization program with the goal of mechanizing all the sugar fields, where topographical conditions allow it. This results in the goal of automating approximately 75% of all the arable land, as the remaining 25% is impossible due to the topographic conditions of the terrain.
The mechanization initiative encompasses all areas: land preparation, seeding/planting of the cane, cultivation (application of herbicides and fertilizers etc.), cutting and hauling of the sugar cane to the mill.
For agricultural work, the company presently counts on: a) a fleet of 250 tractors for the cut and haul of the cane; b) 35 tractors for the soil preparation; c) 20 bulldozers "graders" for preparation of clearing and access routes; and d) 47 combined harvesters for the cutting of sugarcane, which will increase as the mechanization of land increases
USE OF THE RAILROADS
Since the beginning of the Central Romana Corporation’s operations, all of its sugarcane has been transported with the help of its railroads. Today a modern railroad infrastructure exists that carries 100% of the sugarcane crop from the sugar cane fields to the sugar mill. This railroad network consists of 354 kilometers of standard size (56.5 inches) tracks, of which 140 kilometers are the main lines, and 214 of which are loading tracks. This infrastructure permits the company to take up to 22,000 tons of cane directly to the mill, within 24 hours of being cut, a feat that contributes greatly to the efficiency of the company.
To ensure the efficient operations of its railroad network, the company utilizes 17 twenty ton locomotives and 900 wagons, which can haul over 4,000,000 tons of cane during the 225 days of the normal sugar harvesting season.
The ability to use our railroad system to transport all of our sugarcane to the mill is one of the most important factors that have contributed to the efficiency of the company's operations, thereby allowing the minimization of production costs. The railroads require constant maintenance and replacement of worn crossbeams, which where once imported or made from local woods. To which end, the Central Romana Corporation decided, many years ago, to make heavy investments with the goal of being able to manufacture rail crossbeams with prefabricated slabs of concrete, with the implementation of modern techniques. This investment has not only benefited the company, but also the country in general, as it has preserved its forests and minimized its need for purchasing foreign currency.
SUGAR PRODUCTION
At the present time, the Central Romana Corporation maintains a sugar production of over 400,000 tons annually, working with two tandems, each one of which has seven mills with a grinding capacity of 11,000 tons of sugarcane. This allows the company to mill over 20,000 tons of cane a day. The company’s current level of production represents nearly 70% of the total sugar production of the country, symbolizing why the Central Romana Corporation has become synonymous with the word sugar in the Dominican Republic.
As the top producer and exporter of raw sugar in the country, the Central Romana Corporation has also become the largest and presently the only supplier of refined sugar in the domestic market.
The sugar refining operations began in 1970 and have since seen an enormous expansion of their manufacturing capacity, currently able to produce an impressive 1,000 tons of sugar every 24 hours. Through the Central Romana Corporation, the Dominican consumer and the large industrial sugar users have found a reliable source of refined sugar, which has been able to maintain a stable price over time.
- Livestock