This COI should propose methods to wind down the sugar industry with as little pain as possible

Jun 30, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
It was noted with great disappointment, in an SN article of June 27, that Vibert Parvatan, formerly CEO of Fogarty’s Ltd., has been appointed Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) to examine the affairs of Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), Guyana’s largest industry, and determine its way forward.
This development has occurred as the Corporation is not just at a crossroads, but is heavily indebted and in a downward spiral for some time now, with no chance of survival except with continued subsidy from taxpayers which cannot continue indefinitely without serious adverse effects to the country’s economy.
Mr. Parvatan has had an unblemished record of honesty and integrity and has been involved in promoting many social programmes to help the needy. However, in my opinion, he lacks the experience and strategic clarity to lead a COI to ascertain what really ills GuySuCo, and what should be done to revive its assets to make it a viable industry.
Guyanese would need to know what experience Mr. Parvatan has had that motivated Minister Holder to appoint him to lead a COI team to provide answers necessary to turn around GuySuCo.
The FOB price of sugar on the world market has been hovering at about US$0.13/lb for some time now, while its costs of production by GuySuCo has been more than US$0.28/lb. Therefore there is no conceivable way GuySuCo could ever service its debt, trim its production costs and remain viable to compete on the world market with Brazil, India and others, unless it could find the various skills lacking and large capital investments to bring about needed efficiencies to accomplish the competitive threshold of production.
This, of course, would be a pipe dream, as the development banks will find it difficult to make investments in an industry which has no chance of becoming viable.
The APNU/AFC administration should therefore re-examine the seriously skewed terms of reference which Minister Holder has charted for the COI as a means of making GuySuCo economically sustainable and viable, unless they were politically motivated to buy time until the next general election.
GuySuCo cannot be resurrected and therefore the future viability of sugar production in Guyana is dead. Hence, the COI should be recommending means and methods to wind down the industry with as little pain as is possible, and where and how the available assets should be deployed to grow the economy to provide the paying jobs (not the back-breaking ones) Guyanese in the sugar-belt have been dreaming about.
Development plans are usually prepared for five-year periods, not 15 years, since not even the APNU/AFC could project with any meaningful level of certainty, whether they will retain political power beyond their present mandate, much less make projections for the survival of GuySuCo in 15 years’ time.
Charles Sohan

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This COI should propose methods to wind down the sugar industry with as little pain as possible

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