Dear Editor,
I couldn’t believe what I was reading when I got the COMBAT newspapers in my inbox? For the record, the COMBAT newspaper is printed by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), the largest workers Union in Guyana.
In the COMBAT newspaper, it clearly stated that as at the week ending March 25, 2017, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) produced 20,037 tonnes of sugar from a target of 74,172 (or 27 per cent). I was advised only six weeks was left before the 2017 first crop terminates. As expected, Skeldon produced zero tonnes to date because it was prematurely shuttered in this 2017 first crop under the pretext of another lame excuse from Errol Hanoman and friends. But what this exposed is that there was no proper project-planning at that estate in the second crop of 2016. This is shocking because even in the hard days in the 1980’s, GuySuCo always prepped its factories and machinery at the end of the previous year’s second crop in preparation for the next first crop. So how come the management of Skeldon did not know they had a problem on the co-generation plant before the first crop started?
I immediately called my contact in GuySuCo to find out the prospect for the next six weeks and when I thought that GAWU was being pessimistic, the GuySuCo insider dropped an even bigger bombshell on the table. I was advised that GuySuCo is not expecting to produce more than 45,000 tonnes for the 2017 first crop (60 per cent performance).
This will result in an immediate loss to the nation of some US million in real foreign currency inflow. So how can the Minister tell me and the rest of the public that there is enough foreign currency in the system for the first half of 2017? It is either he is being economical with the truth or does not know elementary economics. I can now concur with my dear friend Ramon Gaskin who, on a ‘Plain Talk’ programme in March 2017 with Chris Ram, said Guyana will be importing sugar for domestic consumption in under two years’ time. At this rate, his prediction will come through before its due date.
This David Granger Administration is its own worst enemy. By choosing to play hard-ball on this sugar issue, they are putting an entire nation at risk. As the Granger Administration continues to play politics with the economy, my humble advice to the workers is simple; do not become a collateral damage for a second time as the “elephants in the room mash the grass”; DE-RISK and FAST. By de-risking, I am humbly advising the workers with saving to withdraw all unnecessary cash from your savings account and invest it in something that can store real value like gold or silver or polished diamonds. Guyana is heading swiftly into a season of devaluation and I will not be surprised if by Christmas, the exchange rate will be G0 to US. In layman’s language, if you have G0,000 in your savings account – at the beginning of 2017, it could have bought US5. By the end of 2017, it will more likely buy around US0, which mean the poor man with a savings account of G0,000 would have lost US in value or almost 1/5th of its 2016 value over a 12 month period. That is steep.
The teachers and nurses who lost lots of money during the 1988-1990 period will tell you how their life-savings vanished into thin air within two years. The ordinary people should not make the same mistake again. My humble advice this time around – invest in gold, silver and polished diamonds. Based on the commodity markets, all three of these precious metals are expected to increase in value in the next three years.
But this also means you have to beef up your personal security. Why does the working class always have to get the wrong end of the stick every time?
Sincerely,
Sase Singh
MSc – Finance,
ACCA
