The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Monday announced that it has achieved a total of 37,015 tonnes of sugar or equivalence of 79.6 per cent of its target in the first crop in June.
Sugar workers on strike (file photo)
In a statement, the sugar company noted that the intended target was 46,476 tonnes of sugar; resulting in a shortfall of 9461 tonnes.
The crop was closed with 1093 hectares: 762 hectares at Albion/Port Mourant Estate and 331 at Blairmont Estate – of carry-over canes to be harvested. This translates to 66,000 tonnes of cane that will be carried over to the Second Crop of 2020.
“The actual sugar cane processed for the First Crop is 492,910, as against the budgeted 539,460. The budgeted molasses was 19,624 while the actual production was 21,194; a surplus of 1,569. Tonnes Cane per tonnes sugar was budgeted at 11.61 and the actual was 12.99,” GuySuCo noted.
For this crop, the average harvester attendance was 54.3 per cent across the industry. Harvesters’ attendance at the Albion/Port Mourant Estate was 54 per cent while Blairmont Estate was 50 per cent and Uitvlugt Estate was 64 per cent. The company said this was influenced by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“It should be noted that the First Crop attendance was impacted by the circumstances surrounding the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) which saw the employees being off of work for two weeks and this also contributed to the shortfall.”
The total number of strikes across the three estates for the first crop was fifty – 27 at Blairmont, 17 at Albion/Port Mourant and six at Uitvlugt Estate. This resulted in 13,868 loss in man-days – 7555 at Albion, 4959 at Blairmont and 1354 at Uitvlugt.
The financial impact of the strikes industry-wide for employees totalled $37.9 million. This translates to $20.1 million at Albion/Port Mourant, $13.6 million at Blairmont and $4.2 million at Uitvlugt. Total production loss industry-wide as a result of the man-days lost was 2307 tonnes of sugar.
However, last Thursday, reports surfaced that the Corporation did not have money to pay sugar workers for the month of July. The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) had stated that this major issue will affect hundreds of workers.
The sugar company was said to be awaiting a disbursement of $750 million from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) to make these payments.
GAWU’s General Secretary, Seepaul Narine had noted that the company failed to inform them that workers were not paid or that they were unable to meet the deadline. He further noted that they were having difficulties in contacting an official from GuySuCo.
The official contended that after the $250 million was transferred to GuySuCo earlier this month, they have been awaiting the other chunk for some time.
“They didn’t inform us by letter, which they normally do. We learnt of this situation in the media and we’re trying to get into touch with them but we can’t find anybody. This is a situation that since last month, they’ve been saying that they don’t have money. The Government transferred 200 million and they were supposed to get another 750 million,” Narine insisted.
In fact, promises were made by caretaker President David Granger over one year ago to have this money transferred but there is still conflict between NICIL and GuySuCo over the disbursement. It is a situation which he referred to as “old wine in new bottle”.
This was the second time in two months that thousands of employees across the sugar belt were told by their Union representatives that the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) is without funds to make good on payment of wages.
GAWU had reiterated that with a short time remaining before the second crop commences, the industry requires about $1 billion to meet wage and salary expenditures, while additional monies are required to meet other operational expenses.
GuySuCo’s Board Chairman, John Dow had relayed the company’s woes to caretaker President David Granger via a letter in May. He indicated that the Corporation had only received just about $9.7 billion of the promised $30 billion that was secured for the industry by the Government-run NICIL-Special Purpose Unit (SPU).
The letter also outlined that GuySuCo did not have the necessary cash to meet basic expenses such as salaries, maintenance, and bare essentials. It further revealed that it was also $2.1 billion in debt without any sign of funding. Compounding the situation, according to Dow, was the backlog of some $21 billion owed to GuySuCo’s creditors.
In a turn of events, the company said in its latest statement that it “continues to strengthen its partnership with the Unions and sees them as valuable partners” for the achievement of the target in the Second Crop 2020 and towards building a more resilient business. (G12)
