Region 3’s economy still reeling from effects of Wales’s closure

Sugar woes

– Chamber of Commerce & Industry

It has been more than a year since Government took the decision to close the Wales Sugar Estate, on the West Bank of Demerara, and have workers moved to Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and it’s been several months since these plans were actually carried out.
In the aftermath, however, the Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) economy has been feeling the impact. According to President of the Region Three Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Radesh Rameshwar, the Wales shutdown has had spin-off effects that are being felt.
“The Wales situation is one other reason that has caused a slowdown in the economic situation in Region Three,” Rameshwar said. “It has contributed significantly towards that. The people don’t have money to spend, the spending power (and) especially all the people that would have lost their jobs.”
A decision was taken last year to close the Wales factory. The operations have since partially been integrated with those of Uitvlugt Estate. However, the closure has affected not just hundreds of workers, but their families and the surrounding communities as well.
Many workers told Guyana Times of the difficulties they have encountered finding employment, while many women who traditionally were housewives were forced to seek jobs to support their families.
During a public meeting between residents of Wales, former sugar workers and Government officials, it was highlighted that while some workers wanted to go into farming, concessional financing was not available. Rameshwar, however, raised the issue of markets.
“You can get loans to do all these things, but if you don’t get markets then what is the purpose of all of this? It means that (farmers) are only going to put themselves in more debt. So it’s paramount that markets for these products that will be produced by these farmers be provided to them or guide them to where they can get markets,” Rameshwar said.
He continued, “It’s going to go back to square one; if you’re asking me to plant 5000 tomatoes instead (of sugar) and there are no markets to take them off, then what do we do with them? So the Government should help with securing markets for them.”
It was at high-level sugar consultations last year with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), the Union and the Opposition that Government disclosed that only three estates across the country would be kept operational.
The Private Sector Commission and its affiliates; the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association; the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the Linden Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Development; the Region Three Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and the Berbice Chamber of Commerce and Development Association have all called on Government to rethink its plan to close and privatise estates in Berbice.
A Commission of Inquiry into GuySuCo had recommended that the Corporation be privatised within three years. It also recommended that a serious evaluation of all diversification options be conducted, to avoid total reliance on sugar for GuySuCo’s revenues. Sugar is one of the biggest foreign currency earners for Guyana, along with rice and gold.