GuySuCo produced 58,000 tonnes of sugar for 2021 despite floods

…paid over $600M to NIS

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Friday revealed that, owing to the flooding, its 2021 production target has been revised to 58,025 metric tonnes, compared to 88,890 metric tonnes in 2020.

This was stated in the corporation’s preliminary report for 2021, which showed that 4300 hectares of sugar cane were destroyed by the flooding for the year. This is equivalent to more than 52,000 house lots. GuySuCo was able to rehabilitate only 38 per cent of those damaged canes.
Albion Estate, which was expected to contribute 50 per cent of sugar cane cultivation, had a mortality rate of 80 per cent due to the floods. This is cane that would have otherwise been harvested in the first crop of 2022. Berbice estates as a whole experienced 72 per cent more rainfall in 2021 than in 2020.
So unprecedented was the flooding GuySuCo experienced earlier in the year that “the Corporation drained some 4.5 million tonnes of water off the land daily during the 65 days’ flood, which is enough water to fill 2000 Olympic- sized swimming pools.”
However, GuySuCo CEO Sasenarine Singh was quoted in the report recounting the progress the Corporation has made since the new Government took office. “The opening balance sheet given to the new executive management after the new Dr Irfaan Ali Government came to office illustrated that the Corporation was never compensated for the G$60 billion as a result of the Vested Order that harvested Skeldon, Enmore, Wales and Rose Hall from the books of GuySuCo,” the CEO stated.
“When we turned up at Rose Hall for the initial take-over/hand over process, GuySuCo found a graveyard of scrap metal, as the factory was allowed to deteriorate, and many of the functional moveable machines that GuySuCo left at the location in 2017 either disappeared or fell into unrecoverable disrepair.”
GuySuCo also had to grapple with labour shortages, which, according to the corporation, negatively impacted harvesting. As such, the report recommended that GuySuCo move towards increased mechanisation.
“To compound the challenges of 2021, the industry was faced with a dismal shortage of labour (average turnout in the 2nd crop of 2021 being 49 per cent), which compromised critical operational activities such as harvesting. The outcome from this situation was that the factories did not have adequate canes to grind consistently for a 24-hour period, thus increasing inefficiencies.
“This is why mechanisation at this time is critical to reduce the production period and increase the throughput in the factories in the productive months. The Field Operations and Research Director (ag) stated that what is critical is “two shorter crops with more output per day, and this will help to reduce cost in the industry,” the preliminary report stated.
It was further explained that the degree of mechanisation that would be required would end up costing over $3 billion in urgent capital investment to convert land, procure machinery, and implement field infrastructure.
GuySuCo also revealed that it was able to meet its obligations to the local brown sugar market for 2021. Additionally, the Corporation has enough brown sugar in its bonds to last until Valentine’s Day 2022, when the factories are expected to recommence grinding.
“GuySuCo has launched into a forward-looking marketing strategy that is advancing the sale of value-added packaged sugar (Demerara Gold and Enmore Crystals brands) with the primary focus being the local and Caricom markets. The Corporation’s strategy is to move the industry away from the EU bulk market that procures sugar at an average price of US$400 per MT when compared to US$600 MT in the Caribbean market,” GuySuCo further explained.
Further, GuySuCo added that it has paid over $600 million to the National Insurance Scheme for 2021. This was confirmed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GuySuCo, Sasenarine Singh, who told Guyana Times that the Corporation has fulfilled its requirements for NIS contributions.
“We paid $623 million in NIS since May 2021, and GuySuCo has been paying its NIS obligations every single month since May 2021,” the GuySuCo Executive explained to this publication.
Another development is that the Corporation’s audited reports are now current. This includes reports dating from the year 2017 to 2019. Singh explained that these reports were all completed in one year.
“And we’re set to complete the 2020 and 2021 audits before we start 2022,” Singh further explained.