The signs of contraction and closure of sugar are everywhere

Nov 28, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
APNU+AFC Government is not disguising its plan to end sugar in Guyana anymore. In its unconscionable scheme, Rose Hall sugar factory in Canje appears to be on the chopping block for 2017. More than 2,300 sugar workers and their families will be affected, about 10,000 Guyanese directly.
Their plan is to move cane from Rose Hall to Albion, just as I had warned of last year. Thousands of people in Canje and East Bank Berbice, small businesses etc. will suffer immensely, Guyana’s economy will suffer, poverty will increase.
Having already begun the closing of Wales and LBI, completely ending sugar’s history in these communities and clearly downgrading Skeldon, APNU + AFC is on a firm path to contraction and closure of SUGAR in Guyana. This is consistent with a proposal they made in 2014, while in Opposition.
They immediately began the process to close SUGAR in May 2015. It is not an idle rumor that they have already initiated discussion to sell off Skeldon factory in a sweetheart deal, similar to the public health warehouse fiasco, as part of the process of contraction and closure.
I warned last year of APNU+AFC’s intention to close Rose Hall sugar factory. Now clearly GUYSUCO is carrying out instruction to close Rose Hall. Cane cultivation at Providence, an important source of cane for Rose Hall has been abandoned, ending Providence’s centuries-old link to sugar.
An important source of employment for people in West Canje and East Bank Berbice is being eliminated, with no plans to introduce any economic activity for this area. The already beleaguered populations of West Canje and East Bank Berbice are already feeling the pinch.
They claim transportation of cane from Providence is too expensive. But transportation of cane from Wales to Uitvlugt is even more expensive. This kind of voodoo economics is ruining Guyana.
The fact is just like they have now done at Providence, they will do at Wales, claiming that cane transportation to Uitvlugt is too expensive. They have already concluded transportation of cane from LBI to Enmore is too costly as a reason to completely close LBI.
The signs of contraction and closure of SUGAR is everywhere. We are aware that the annual 20% replanting program is essentially abandoned. Mechanization which is an imperative for SUGAR’s future in Guyana has been put on hold.
Land conversion has come to a grinding halt. Genuine diversification has been replaced with rice cultivation. Notice the weekly data from GUYSUCO is no longer a public exercise? Let GUYSUCO tell us again on a weekly basis what is the replanting, land conversion, mechanization and production data.
They claim we are crying wolf and they are merely in the process of diversification. But co-generation has been abandoned and ethanol production is either on hold or abandoned. The packaging plants at Blairmont and Enmore have attracted little attention from APNU+AFC/GUYSUCO.
Instead, their idea of diversification is rice cultivation. Like many Guyanese I was shocked when they announced they will use cane fields in Wales to cultivate rice. They clandestinely used $450M from GRDB (rice farmers’ money) to fund an American group to pilot rice cultivation in Wales, raiding the treasury for their own purpose and benefits. GUYSUCO, GRDB and APNU+AFC are obliged to reveal who has been contracted and how much they have paid to pilot a rice project at Wales. Is GRDB also paying for Professor Thomas’s rice cultivation at Skeldon?
Rice disguised as diversification in GUYSUCO is not new. Millions were squandered in the failed rice project at Blairmont. The fields and the rice factory still stand as a reminder of GUYSUCO’s sad foray into rice. But it is puzzling that GUYSUCO is intent to compete with rice farmers for limited rice markets.
Guyana’s rice farmers presently sell paddy below production cost because Guyana depends on low-priced rice markets, having squandered prime rice markets. Who is GUYSUCO planning to sell rice to?
Ramjattan, Nagamootoo, Charandass and others who before the May 2015 elections were daily on TV and radio in Berbice bloviating commitment to sugar and rice are dreadfully silent today. But their betrayal of sugar workers is thunderously conspicuous. They whimper in a corner like a poodle as their fearsome masters in APNU implement a pre-determined scheme of contraction and closure of SUGAR. These charlatans failed Wales, now they need to show up in Canje and explain their silence on the proposed closure of Rose Hall sugar factory. Anything less is compounding the betrayal.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

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