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A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE SUGAR INDUSTRY

Sep 26, 2015 Editorial, Features / Columnists

In Guyana, agriculture, especially the sugar and the rice industries, remains the primary focus of the APNU+AFC government, especially the Minister of Agriculture. Historically, sugar has been the mainstay of the economy, a key foreign currency earner and the second largest employer in the country after the government.
Today, the sugar industry is in serious financial and management crisis; it is badly wounded and needs more than money for it to return to a healthy life. It needs qualified and technical personnel and a long term solution. The granting of $8.2 billion to GUYSUCO by the Granger/Nagamootoo led coalition government will help the industry but this should only be a short term resolution to the crisis.
While the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the government to highlight the problems of the industry seems to be a practical approach, a group of financial and technical experts is needed to solve the problems that have and continue to plague the industry.
Several attempts were made by the former administration to rescue GUYSUCO from its current dire state but it appears that they have all failed. The cold, hard truth is that the former government had saddled the taxpayers with billions of dollars in subsidies to the insolvent sugar industry, even when it was failing.
This was done out of pure political expediency as the sector employs a significant number of voters most of whom are supporters of the PPP.Therefore, it was in the interest of the PPP to save the industry in order to gain votes at the expense of the taxpayers.
However, immediately after taking office, the new political directorate had resisted the temptation to only pour money into the industry without a solid plan or strategy to turn it around. They believe that the sugar industry is too big to fail and should be saved. This was emphatically stated by both President David Granger and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
GUYSUCO has been bankrupt for years but it is only now that genuine efforts are being made by the new APNU+AFC coalition government to truly save the industry. Even though faced with this harsh reality to continue subsidizing the industry, the present government has no plans to close any of the unprofitable sugar factories or reduce the workforce as claimed by the PPP during the election campaign. It would be political suicide to do so.
But whatever decision the government makes, it will take into consideration the impact of the industry on the well-being of the sugar workers and on the economy in light of the stiffglobal competitionfor the price of sugarwhich has been decliningon the world market.
The coalition government is serious about making the sugar industry profitable again, and has not embraced the policies of the former administration. Those policies were not practical. The consequence is that taxpayers continue to pay a heavy price because of the failing policies of the former administration, especially the building of the White Elephant Skeldon Sugar factory at a cost of US$208 million.It was the norm for the previous administration to maintain the status quo, which led to corrupt practices and themismanagement of thesugar industry.
This government has given GUYSUCO a fresh start from the top to efficiently and competently manage the industry.There should no longer beany more free rides for the sugar industry. As such, the goal of the APNU+AFC government is to correct the mistakes made by the previous administration and save the sugar industry from further ruin for the sake of the workers and the country. The bottom line is, as tough as things are for the industry and its workers, there has to be a trade-off in which both the management of GUYSUCO and the government could meet each other halfway. This should be a new beginning for the industry which should be fair to the taxpayers who have been subsidizing it for almost a decade.

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