Home News GAWU concerned as GuySuCo only achieves 39% of 2024 sugar target so...
The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has expressed concerns over the current trend of sugar production.
The workers’ union is questioning the competency of the sugar company’s management in light of the poor performance so far for the year.
According to GAWU, as of October 26, 2024, the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) produced 24,711 tonnes of sugar, representing just 39 per cent of its 63,276-tonne target for the year.
With 60 per cent of the cropping period already exhausted, GAWU said it is apprehensive that the deficit cannot be closed in the remaining cropping nine weeks.
GAWU indicated that the major challenge revolves around the quality of canes being produced.
It explained that while the industry cane yields have been higher than anticipated, the sucrose content from the sugar cane remains depressed.
GAWU noted that this is a result of the El Nino drought conditions that is currently fueling the heatwave in Guyana.
Nevertheless, it was highlighted that the “industry’s sad situation” cannot be delinked from the management.
In a statement released on Monday, GAWU expressed that: “…before the commencement of the crop, the Union drew GuySuCo’s attention to several important issues that required intervention. It appears that our concerns were brushed aside. Recently, we have expressed concern about the production rate and trajectory. It seems that those charged with agricultural management in the industry have, for reason/s best known to themselves, chosen to turn a Nelson’s Eye.”
Given the conducive weather to mechanised sugar operations over the past few weeks, the GAWU is puzzled that daily production levels remained constrained. It begs the question: What are the factor/s which have inhibited production levels? The industry remains heavily reliant on manual cane harvesting complemented by mechanised loading, a practice that is now decades old.
GAWU has since indicated that given the collective managerial experience in GuySuCo, they expected better planning to mitigate some of the challenges.
Nevertheless, the workers’ union said it remains convinced that the sugar industry can succeed, but, knowledgeable and capable management is an essential prerequisite.
In this regard, the union said: “We urge policymakers to consider ridding the industry of those who have anointed themselves as the ‘saviour’ but have placed it in a stranglehold and seek to blame everyone and everything but themself for the circumstances in which the GuySuCo finds itself.”
“It appears that rather than addressing their difficulties in a complete and frank manner; the GuySuCo agricultural leadership is preparing to deploy rationales and justifications to obfuscate to excuse their poor performance. We are sure that we will hear about issues related to punt weights, standards, and work attendance in the coming days, among other things. Of course, those who have followed the industry would know that these are certainly not new excuses but are the same old scapegoats – the workers and the weather – that will be deployed to grant coverage for the eventual output”.
When contacted by this publication for an opportunity to respond to GAWU’s statement, Head of GuySuCo Paul Cheong declined to comment.
1ST crop
Back in August, this publication reported that GuySuCo produced 6,738 tonnes of sugar for its first crop of 2024, falling short of the initial target of 16,000 tonnes.
This was supported that information provided the agriculture minister in response to questions posed by Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Vinceroy Jordon on the sugar industry during a parliament proceeding.
The minister stated at the time that the shortfall of the target is a result of the devastating effects of the prolonged drought, which “significantly restricted the growth of canes”.
He revealed that the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate produced 2874.3 tonnes while Blairmont produced 2084.8 tonnes and Rose Hall with the lowest, 1779.8 tonnes.
While the three estates began grinding sugar canes between February to April 2024, it was explained that the Albion Estate ‘did not grind for the first crop due to a powerhouse fire on February 3. The Skeldon Estate also encountered several issues when producing its first crop. (G1)
