by Words fail at the photos that show the extent of the destruction at Greece’s biggest sugar factory. The pride of the Macedonian plain since 1962, the investment of Konstantinos Karamanlis which lasted 60 years and was handed over in 2019 by the Mitsotakis government to the “investor” Serrai – what historical sarcasm, really -, ready for the production of thousands of tons of sugar, today that does not exist! Since there is no more beet cultivation. As in four years no grain of sugar has been produced.
When on 2.2.2023 under the title “Organized crime in sugar”, the “Ef.Syn.” exposed the undercover operation of the Public Ministry of Organized Crime at the Platys premises and we transferred the irrefutable information about the heist to the equipment, we did not even imagine what the photographs demonstrate. And as the photos often “deceive”, we have researched what they represent exactly. News of the power plant that literally disappeared gave the recorded destruction biblical dimensions.
What today’s report captures is nothing more than the rebuttal of the government’s rhetoric of ‘investment’ and ‘development’ or ‘interest’ in the country’s primary sector of dramatic and painful for the national economy.
Experts in building similar-sized industrial facilities told “Ef.Syn.” that the Plati plant to become active again requires an investment of 150 million. Words are also superfluous considering that Platy – like the other EBZ factories – found itself in this situation because… of a loan from the Piraeus Bank of 160 million!
What do ministers Adonis Georgiadis and Nikos Papathanasis say who, as we have read, travel the country to promote… development? What does Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis say? Could it be that once again such a disaster was not known to him, who otherwise “hears and hears always”? What does Deputy Finance Minister Apostolos Vesyropoulos, also from Imathia and who boasted a few days ago of reopening the Naoussa police academy, say?
And that’s unfortunately not the only bad news. Just over a week ago it was reported that the price of sugar hit an 11 year (!) high with the raw sugar contract climbing to 24 cents per pound as demand increases and the production drops globally due to unfavorable harvest weather conditions. .
As ignorant as he is, it is easy to imagine where the price of sugar will go in our country, which is now forced to import all the sugar it consumes, roughly estimated at 250,000 tonnes. Good news for importers who can be counted on the fingers of one hand (including the “investor” of ND).
Last but not last. The information insists that after the summons of the EBZ management and the raid of the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office in Plati, the Bank of Central Macedonia (Serron, as it is called and rumors constantly want it to be acquired by another bank), which was the first lessor of the Plati and Serres factories, together with the management of EVZ, they proceeded to evict the “investor” sub-tenant Christos Karathanasis.
It is impressive that, while rumors are spreading in Serres, the relevant information has never been confirmed or denied in the local press. In general, there is a silence and everyone pretends not to know anything about the crime, as if they don’t have to give public explanations, which they should have given a long time ago. And that may be because it has not been understood that EVZ is publicly owned and not a private company.
Former employees also claim that there were spare parts worth millions in the warehouses. Can anyone assure us that he didn’t make wings? Anything that looked like steel seems to have “vented”. The total damage is estimated at more than 150 million. Those who thus caused this catastrophe and those who covered it for three years must say something, explain themselves. But for three years he has been wanted and the person in charge who will ask the responsibility of the management of EBZ, Piraeus Bank, Cooperative Bank who show that they are surprised and do not know what is happening, do not has not yet been found. .
And what about the local leaders of Imathia, the farmers themselves, the ex-workers and the people of the region who do not react (except for the few who had received and… warnings) and do not don’t talk about what’s happening in front of them! And of course, since they don’t care where they belong, why should the others in Athens care?
The strangest thing is that even as these stories were being written, reports were coming in that insisted the disaster was continuing as if nothing had happened. Nothing surprises us where we have arrived (we will write about the need for control, but there are no more police officers from the Universities and the new batch of gendarmes from neighboring Naoussa has not yet come out. That ‘they are sent to Plati for a lesson and not to popular markets where grandmothers sell trinkets without bills).
