The presentation of the white paper on the sugar industry in the National Assembly on Monday confirmed that the industry was being “maliciously downsized” as a prelude for closure.
This is according to former Agriculture Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who stated that the paper also confirmed what the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has been saying.
the Magistrates’ Courts on Monday
“It contradicts what the Government has been saying. This is not re-engineering as Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) calls it. It is diversification and it is not consolidating,” he opined.
Ramsammy told Guyana Times on Tuesday that the new policy provided no assurances nor any plans on how three sugar estates – Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt – would remain open.
“In fact, reading between the lines, the definite closure of three more sugar estates in 2017, added to Wales, which was closed in 2016, represent the beginning of a plan to close sugar,” he explained.
The former Minister also said that the downsizing and subsequent closure of sugar estates would lead to the loss of more than 15,000 jobs and the threat of poverty for 50,000 to 100,000 people.
He said the coalition Government and the senior management of GuySuCo were to be blamed for this.
In addressing the other issues raised in the white paper, Ramsammy said half of the paper was filled with interesting but irrelevant historical information, with a hefty portion of inaccuracies.
“Production data, even if historical, is meaningful only if it is accurate. The historical perspective, with its hefty portion of inaccuracies, and its listing of problems represent more than 75 per cent of the paper.”
Further, the former Agriculture Minister told this publication that Uitvlugt was being set up for closure, because Government has already said that Uitvlugt could not survive without Wales workers.
“Wales workers will not go to Uitvlugt. Transferring cane from Rose Hall will increase production cost at Albion and threaten Albion, providing them with an excuse to close Albion,” Ramsammy asserted.
“Albion, which presently boasts the lowest cost of sugar production and the most efficient in terms of cane to sugar ratio, will be transformed into a less efficient estate. It will be impossible to maintain Enmore/LBI cultivation, since transport to any factory will be prohibitive,” he pointed out.
The cost for maintaining the drainage and irrigation in the closed estate will become a cost that Government must take up, the Minister said, maintaining that the idea that GuySuCo will continue to maintain drainage and irrigation in closed estates was a “myth”.
“This is a cost that GuySuCo has borne and it is now being recognised that this was included in the cost of production. GuySuCo has always subsidised central government and local government in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six when it comes to maintaining drainage and irrigation,” he concluded.
On Monday, Government announced plans to close the Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates, sell the Skeldon Sugar Factory, reduce the annual production of sugar, and take on the responsibility of managing the drainage and irrigation services offered by GuySuCo
