GuySuCo on road to lowest production in 50 years – GAWU

While the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) last week revealed that it might miss its revised 90,000 tonnes of sugar production target owing to the inclement weather, the sugar workers’ union believes that whether the Corporation achieves this or not, production would still be the lowest in the past 50 years.
General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural & General Workers Union (GAWU), Seepaul Narine told Guyana Times that the Union stands by its statement issued in September where it related that the sugar corporation would be recording its lowest production in recent times.
“Even if they were to make the 90,000 tonnes, it would still be the lowest in like 50 years or so. We had predicted that they would have made about 78-80,000 tonnes but it appears that they would go closer to the 90,000 which is good because at least they are able to do a little better than we originally thought. If they were to achieve 90,000 it would still be a lower number,” Narine said.
Early last week, Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo, Sasenarine Singh related that unprecedented rainfall at the beginning of November caused the Corporation to have delayed harvesting and grinding, which would result in them missing their target.

“Even if the weather going forward is good, it would be difficult for GuySuCo to surpass 90,000 tonnes in 2020. That was a real possibility at the end of September 2020, and after the November rains, it blew away that opportunity and we have at best three weeks left. So far, we have about 80,670 tonnes of sugar produced, and we are pushing to have (90,000) by the end of the three weeks (remaining for the crop),” Singh had said.
However, he had indicated that the sugar workers are working beyond the call of duty to ensure that as much sugar is produced as is possible. Singh had related that due to the rains, the Corporation lost the opportunity to produce almost $354 million in sugar across the three functional estates – Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and Rose Hall and Blairmont in Berbice.
“This is a serious situation because that is $354 million that we could have been using to invest in the sugar industry and pursue the 2021 plan. So, this situation is heart-rending since it affected the approximately 8800 sugar workers, but we have accepted it and we are planning for 2021, to ensure that we do not lose the available opportunity days,” he noted.
In September, GAWU had estimated 2020 production to be just about 77,778 tonnes of sugar. It had said that the Corporation’s major problem continues to be the lack of quality canes in its fields, adding that while more canes are produced, the quality is poor resulting in more canes being utilised to produce a tonne of sugar.
“It seems to us that there is really no effort by the Corporation’s leadership to aggressively and meaningfully address the challenges. Rather it appears that the laidback attitude has taken grip in the organisation’s structure because the perennial whipping boys such as strikes and bad weather are the identified causes for non-achievement of targets at end of crops. Clearly, as the data bears out, the problem is much more fundamental and there appears no emphasis to meaningfully address those realities but rather to engage in a vicious cycle which serves to push the industry further down the path of unsustainability,” the Union had related in a statement.
Since then, the leadership of the sugar corporation has changed.
Back in 2016, the former APNU/AFC closed the Wales Estate, and, the following year, shut down the Enmore, Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates, putting over 7000 sugar workers on the breadline. The downsizing of the sugar industry saw only the Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion estates being in operation. The assets of the closed estates were put under the control of the Special Purpose Unit of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) for divestment.
The Corporation is eyeing the reopening of Enmore and Rose Hall Estates by 2022. It is expected that the Rose Hall factory would be the first to become operational, while the Skeldon factory would be returned to operation by 2023. The Wales factory would be divested.