White sugar refinery to create local jobs, cut Caribbean’s dependence on imported sugar

The establishment of the Demerara Sugar Refinery Inc is expected to reduce Guyana’s, and the wider Caribbean’s, dependence on imported white sugar as well as create scores of permanent job opportunities for locals.
Set to be located at the former Wales Sugar Estate on the West Coast of Demerara, the 100,000-tonne white sugar refinery will not only strengthen Guyana’s sugar industry but also enhance the regional supply chain.

The facility is being developed by Guyanese company GAICO Inc in partnership with North American-based Sucro. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GAICO, Komal Singh, signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Sucro’s CEO Jonathan Taylor at the Pegasus Suites in Georgetown on Tuesday evening.
Prior to the signing, President Dr Irfaan Ali engaged with the JV partners and other stakeholders on the project at the State House in Georgetown.
In a subsequent social media post, the Head of State noted that the refinery will provide an additional and reliable market for the sugar that is being produced by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
The Guyanese leader was also informed by the investors that the project will create about 75 jobs during the construction phase, which will commence in January 2026, and a further 60 permanent positions when operations commence, which is expected within a year.
“They also noted that with an established logistics network in place, local refining will significantly reduce the Caribbean’s dependence on imported refined sugar,” President Ali said in the post.
Sucro, a US and Canadian sugar refiner and distributor, has built four sugar refineries in the last five years, including in Belize, where it is currently constructing the Caribbean Sugar Refinery (CSR) Limited in partnership with Santander Sugar Limited.
According to Sucro officials, CSR, coupled with the Demerara Sugar Refinery, aims to transform the Caribbean sugar industry by building regional cane sugar refining capacity to serve the Caricom (Caribbean Community) market.

Value from refined sugar
Vice President and Head Trader at Sucro, Oliver Hire, said the establishment of the facility here is part of a commitment to put modern refinery capacity in Guyana and keep more of the value from refined sugar in the country.
He noted that the Demerara Sugar Refinery will be a technology-focused refinery that will mobilise sugarcane farming with GuySuCo. This opportunity will not only enable GuySuCo to grow and expand but also incentivise it to increase production of raw brown sugar.
“Instead of just exporting that sugar and passing the value-added along to other countries and other refineries, we’re refining it right here in Guyana. Importantly, we’re refining it with efficient, technology-focused technology that really passes the value back down. It’s world-class liquifying and refining solutions, and what it leads to is a worldclass sugar refining project right here… This is local value-creation,” Hire stated during a presentation at Tuesday’s signing ceremony.
He went on to note that the final product will then be sold and distributed to Caricom markets, leveraging Guyana’s prime geographical location.

Value-added opportunities
Meanwhile, GAICO’s CEO Komal Singh disclosed that the idea of the white sugar refinery was sparked only in September during a conversation with President Ali on the value-added opportunities available for the local private sector within the sugar industry.
“I started looking for a partner to develop the white sugar refinery in Guyana. We kept looking around the world and we came back to Sucro… They had just launched in September a similar project in Belize,” Singh noted during the signing ceremony.
The Guyanese businessman believes that the Demerara Sugar Refinery will be transformational not just for the country but for GuySuCo as well.
“This project is very transformational for the sugar industry, and we’re proud to be working with GuySuCo…to help them increase their productivity, taksing the excess sugar that they have and refined it into white sugar, a value-added [product] that has a massive demand on the world market,” he noted.
Moreover, Singh added that the project will also be utilising rice husk to generate power at the refinery plant, thus making the operation environmentally sound.

Importance of sugar to national economic life
Lauded GAICO for taking advantage of the value-added opportunities from sugar, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh posited that this latest joint venture vindicates the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C’s) continued commitment to Guyana’s sugar industry.
“The People’s Progressive Party has always recognized the importance of sugar to national and economic life in Guyana, and in every phase of our history we have committed and recommitted ourselves to the protection, preservation and strengthening of the sugar industry, and we did not do this in an opportunistic or seasonally convenient manner. We did this at a time when sugar was literally king,” Dr Singh said as he traced the period when the sugar industry commenced during the British colonial era.
The Minister recalled that this history was not without challenge, as sugar went through a period when Guyana lost the preferential market in Europe, as a result of which the price for the commodity was dramatically affected.
He further reminded us of how the previous administration, the APNU/AFC regime, closed the sugar estates, including the Wales Factory, and what the current Administration met when it re-entered office in 2020, coupled with the effort and investments that went into resuscitating the sugar industry.
Also, in attendance at the launch on Tuesday evening and witnessing the joint venture agreement signing were Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha, CEO of GO-Invest Peter Ramsaroop, and CEO of GuySuCo Paul Cheong, as well as other Government Ministers and members of the private sector.