Sugar

Jul 23, 2008 Editorial

It is now two weeks since the Demerara sugar estates have launched into their second, or “big,” crop (in terms of duration) while the Berbice operations entered the fray a week later. But there are troubling signs on the horizon.

In the Demerara estates, almost one-third of the cane harvesters (as the cane-cutters are now dubbed) have not shown up for work, and it is projected that the Berbice estates will certainly face the same problem. This disappearance of workers will definitely impact negatively on both the production costs and the total production in the industry.

The original projected production for this year (2008) was 350,000 tonnes, but this was dramatically slashed to 285,000 tonnes, according to one top official, because of inclement weather and the strike of workers on the Berbice estates to protest the dramatic rise in food and transportation prices.

Even with the reduced target, the first crop fell short by some 5,000 tonnes.
While the official claimed that the strikes in Berbice were unrelated to the operations of the sugar corporation, this is not entirely true.

The workers were protesting because their wages could not meet their living expenses, and this is due to the fact that, in GuySuCo’s drive to reduce the cost of producing sugar to an industry-wide average of twelve US cents per pound, the real wage of the sugar workers has shrivelled, even while their productivity has increased.

The production of sugar from cane is a very labour-intensive process in Guyana, especially because of our rainfall patterns and drainage system. Traditionally, in the colonial era, sixty percent of the cost of producing sugar went to labour. It has been mandated that that percentage has to be reduced to fifty percent.

While the introduction of mechanical loaders was intended to assist in that reduction, many of the “custom and practice” benefits that had been won over the last half a century have been gradually eroded, so that even though a worker might be cutting the same amount of cane as his father used to, he is taking home comparatively less money.

Additionally, in some of the Demerara estates, the number of weeks of available work has been severely curtailed, and the four-day work week in the “out of crop” period is merely survival wage.

It is our understanding that the present crop in Demerara will last just thirteen weeks, instead of the normal seventeen weeks. For these and other reasons, it will be very difficult to attract an optimum work force in the industry across the country.

One of the cardinal rules in the sugar industry since the days of slavery has been that once the sugar factory starts “grinding” it cannot stop until the entire crop had been reaped across the estate. This was because the cost of getting the factory up and running was extremely substantial, and if the factory had to stop and re-start because of lack of cane, the per-unit cost would rise precipitously.

In addition to many factories recently having to go this route because of lack of cane (either due to worker absence or no cane available for cutting), we have been now informed that when the new factory at Skeldon finally gets going, it will have to adopt the stop-go method as a matter of course because of a shortage of cane.

This circumstance will certainly create further pressures to reduce the wages of workers, since the new Skeldon was originally designed to run “flat out,” and in doing so bring its cost of production to below eight cents per pound and thereby reduce the industry-wide costs, because of the impact of its hundred-thousand-tonne production.

The incentives for new or even present workers to enter the industry will further decrease, and a vicious cycle may be formed. The tradition of rural young men who did not do well in school entering the sugar industry is being challenged by the availability of alternative jobs that, in their eyes, are at least “steady”.

Unfortunately or not, sugar remains the bedrock of our economy by producing the most foreign currency (excepting remittances) and providing the most jobs in any single venture.

The Administration has shown its commitment by its investment in Skeldon. It must now secure that investment by addressing the real wage needs of its vital workforce.

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