GuySuCo’s $6B injection to target agri, mechanical harvesting

Mar 28, 2014 News

---

By Leonard Gildarie
A major part of the $6B in financial provision by Government to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), as announced in the National Budget, will go towards improving field agriculture and prepare the industry for more mechanised harvesting.
President Donald Ramotar, who made the disclosure yesterday during a press conference, also said that the administration is pushing for more land to be distributed to private farmers as a shortage of labour continues to affect production.

Over the past few years, Government has been plugging billions into the industry in the face of falling production. Last year, GuySuCo dropped to a 23-year low of just less than 190,000 tonnes, from an initial annual target of 260,000 tonnes.
The National Assembly last year approved $1B, but not before the Opposition warned that the industry should pull itself out of the hole into which it was sinking.
With calls for a major shakeup in the industry and even new direction of ethanol production, Government has been under pressure to provide solutions to the problems facing what was Guyana’s biggest foreign exchange earner at one time.
According to the President, himself a former Director on GuySuCo’s Board of Directors, the $6B injection will help to provide critical capital to help modernisation.
Changes in the weather pattern has been playing havoc at the estates, reducing the opportunity for real operations to take place.
GuySuCo, Ramotar said, will be increasing its focus on reaping, planting and land preparations, with millions of dollars more to be invested in changing the layout of the land to accommodate the mechanical harvesters.
As a matter of fact, earlier this week, there was a demonstration of a type of new mechanical harvester on the East Coast Demerara estates.
Labour shortages have been badly affecting the eight estates, with turnout at the Uitvlugt estate, West Coast Demerara, at an alarming 43%. The situation is not better at the seven other estates scattered between Demerara and Berbice.
Sugar has fallen behind gold and rice in earnings, worrying the administration, as the industry controls around 16,000 employees, providing drainage and irrigation to several coastland communities.
An accumulative 36% price cut over a five-year period by Guyana’s biggest customer in Europe has not been helping the industry. Continued problems at the beleaguered US$200M Skeldon modernization project in Berbice has failed to kick-start GuySuCo as was the hope, because of several technical issues at the new flagship factory there.
A US$12.5M packaging factory at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, designed to help push Guyana for more value-added products, has reportedly been largely under-utilised because of a shortage of sugar.

In recent years, GuySuCo has been selling lands for housing and closing a number of estates to consolidate its operations.
A new Board of Directors is to start its tenure after July, with former overseas-based Chairman, Dr. Raj Singh, being appointed the new Chief Executive Officer.
In his budget presentation last Monday, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh echoed what the administration has been appealing. He said that an all-out effort will be needed by all stakeholders, including management and labour, to ensure GuySuCo is restored to a profitable operation.
“The provision of this very tangible support by Government to the sugar industry will benefit its 18,000 workers directly, including by helping to preserve their jobs, and a total of 120,000 persons, directly and indirectly,” he said.
Yesterday, GuySuCo’s biggest worker union, Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU), said it welcomed the $6B cash injection measure as proposed by Government.
“Agriculture holds out bright prospects for our development, our future, and indeed, in providing employment. We share the view that this sector is deserving of increasing attention by the Government, considering the growing demands for such products today and the market in our own region and beyond that can be explored and tapped, while ensuring adequate, sustainable and cheap food for our people.”
However, the union warned that while there is a necessity of such support, at this time, other crucial steps should be taken, including a new Board of Directors of GuySuCo to guide the rehabilitation work of the industry, among other things.
“We are also mindful of the fact that this disbursement should be not delinked from the European Union (EU) Accompanying Measures, and moreover, the industry’s previous support to the state in the years of the Sugar Levy.
The sugar industry continues to serve our country in a multi-faceted way. Therefore, we cannot allow the industry to fail. The impact of failure will be nothing short of devastation. The GAWU remains confident that the profitable expectations of the industry can be met.”

---

---