True to its word, the PPPC administration has followed through with its promise to reopen the sugar factories that have been shuttered by the PNC-led coalition government. Of the four, Wales, in Demerara, will be developed out of sugar under a “Wales Development Authority”. In its Budget 2020, the Government allocated $5B for the reopening and rehabilitation of Rose Hall, Skeldon and Enmore, with $3B to be injected immediately and the remainder as needed.
More than one hundred workers have been hired at Rose Hall, with another 400 in the pipeline, to begin rehabilitating the fields that have been overrun with “bush”. The canals, dams and bridges would also have to be rehabilitated before new canes can be planted, which would be harvested in a year.
The estate administration has set itself some ambitious targets: the production of 6000 tons of sugar by the first crop of 2022, when the factory is projected to be ready for “grinding”, and another 8000 tonnes in the second crop.
Rose Hall is certainly the most feasible point of intervention in the sugar rehabilitation plan, especially because of the disastrous social impact closure of the sugar estate precipitated. There is no alternative employer of any consequence in the entire Canje Creek basin, and the effects of the shutdown rippled through the communities like a tsunami. This situation, however, should also alleviate the major challenge that the other reopened factories, as well as the operational ones, will face: the supply of labour.
The PPPC Government will find itself in the paradoxical position of creating an economic boom with its development plans – centred on the explosion in infrastructural projects and housing – that will put pressure on the labour supply, especially in the Demerara Estates. Typically, work in the fields of the sugar industry is literally backbreaking, and absenteeism was endemic before the closures. As has been the case since slavery and indentureship, sugar cane has to be harvested and processed within a very narrow window of forty-eight hours, to prevent its rapid deterioration and loss of the sucrose content. A disciplined and available work force is critical for success in the sugar industry. One positive development since the PPPC was returned to office has been the inclusion of a member of the sugar union on the GuySuCo Board, and this should go a long way in mediating the often-rancorous relationship between management and workers in the industry.
While immediate attention might be focused on the reopening of the three PNC-shuttered estates, the new Board, CEO and managers cannot ignore the challenges that the three “grinding” estates have been experiencing over the last two years. Rather than the 147,000 tonnes that had been projected, barely 90,000 tonnes were produced in 2019 – the lowest in 80 years. More troubling was the 20% drop in the overall first crop production, with the flagship Albion factory leading the way with a 27% plunge. This must be rectified and reversed immediately.
Finally, there is the challenge of marketing our sugar, which was brought to the fore after the EU – which received the bulk of our exports – arbitrarily and unilaterally reduced their preferential price – which was supposed to exist “in perpetuity” – by 36%. That market is projected to completely disappear, with Europe satisfying its sugar needs from its own beet sugar. We are therefore left with the Caricom market, which can be met from the productions of Jamaica, Barbados, Belize and ours.
The fly in the ointment, however, is that most of Caricom sugar is being imported as refined sugar from outside the region. Two years ago, there were intensive discussions in Caricom between sugar producers and the business community that use the product. The producers, including GuySuCo, committed to producing “plantation white” sugar as a substitute, and it was agreed that Caricom should impose a 40% “Common External Tariff” (CET) on externally-sourced refined sugar. The manufacturers were equivocal.
GuySuCo had committed to producing 50,000 tonnes of “plantation white” sugar by 2022, and was supposed to be sourcing the equipment to do so. The new team should tie up these loose ends.
