Challenging year ahead as GAWU foresees shortfall in sugar production

Guyana’s sugar targets for 2024 are projected to fall short due to various factors including the recent drought condition that severely impacted production.
This was according to Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) Anslim Singh, during a recent interview on the Guyana dialogue.
“So, last year the target was 60,000 tons and they produced 60,200 tons, so they surpassed the target. This year will be a little bit more challenging because they did a lot of tilling and replanting, but what happened because of the drought situation, is fresh water became a major challenge, especially in the earlier part of this year.”

Singh added that due to the irrigation process sugar canes endure, which relies on gravity, water levels tend to decline which poses a big threat to the production of sugar canes as well.
“Normally, canes are usually irrigated by gravity. It became so acute because the water levels declined so much that they had to mechanically use pumps to irrigate cane plants. Of course, that in itself was insufficient because they did not have the volume of water they required, so it will become a bit difficult,” he stated.
However, Singh noted that the May/June rains have somewhat alleviated the situation, allowing the canes to grow but this will not allow the production rate to hit the presumed target.
“Having come out of this drought and the rain coming maybe the latter part of May, early June. The plants are now in an active growing stage, and that is maybe, we’re still having some rains here and I think they’re trying to maximise as far as possible the rains to get a maximum rainfall.”
When asked about the likelihood of reaching this year’s target due to the poor irrigation system, Singh responded, “Well, it will have an impact. However, on the positive side, they would have planted a lot more cane and therefore there should be a greater volume of cane available. Whether it will reach their expectations, I mean, that is not too clear as yet. There are various numbers.”
Meanwhile, in terms of pursuing better-yielding cane with higher sucrose content, Singh revealed, that there are various attempts to import cane from Cuba and neighboring countries.
“There were two attempts or two plans. One, to bring canes from Cuba and to bring canes from Brazil. The Cuban canes, I don’t think they have arrived yet but there were some Brazilian canes brought earlier this year and that has been planted, I think, at Rose Hall Estate.”
He added that the increased importation of cane is a way of embracing innovation.
“So, there are also those elements taking place because innovation has to be a part of the industry. Apart from that, the industry itself, as you know, would do cane breeding and they also are examining some varieties which they have been producing at an experimental level for release at the commercial level to also enhance sugar production.”
With an investment of $8.1 billion in 2023 to advance the revitalisation efforts of the sugar industry, Guyana saw a massive 28 percent or 13,155 metric tonnes increase in sugar production, compared to 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022.
This was highlighted by Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, during the ministry’s year-end review on Saturday.