Guyana seeks technical expertise from India to revitalize sugar industry

Oct 12, 2020 News

---

Kaieteur News – High Commissioner of India, Dr. K. J. Srinivasa, along with the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, Region Six Vice Chairman, Zamal Armogan, and other officials, visited the Blairmont Estate, Rose Hall Estate and the Skeldon Estate on Saturday.

The Indian High Commissioner was given a first-hand look at the present state of the closed estates in Region 6 and the operating Blairmont Estate.
During an interview with the media at the Skeldon Estate, Minister Mustapha disclosed that the Indian High Commissioner requested a tour of all the estates and he willingly obliged to his request since he wanted him to have a better understanding and view of them in their current state. He added that it was critical that he not only toured the estates that are set to be re-opened but to also have a look at the working ones as well.
“We know for a fact over the years a number of critical work were neglected in those factories that are running presently and because of that they are only running 40-60% capacity. However, the money that was budgeted in our budget $3B then the $2B after we have already started to disburse those funds based on the request they have had,” he disclosed. He added that since the monies were disbursed, works on the estates set to be reopened have commenced rapidly and the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has since hired some 125 persons at the Rose Hall Estate and the 100 at the Skeldon factory, by year-end an estimated 200-300 workers are set to be rehired to prepare the cultivation lands for the next crop.”
He stressed that one of the present challenges is getting on board the cane farmers who contributed some 32% of canes to the factory with GuySuCo responsible to supply the rest of those canes… “So I will be meeting back with them to convince them to start back cultivations.”
According to the Minister with the visit to the estates by the Indian High Commissioner, he is hopeful that there will be assistance from India in terms of providing technical personnel.
He stated that he has since written to the High Commissioner of India and “they are looking at technical expertise to come and help here at the factory level and I am also requesting them to have technical experts coming here to help us in our cultivation so both sides we will be looking at technical experts from India to help us.”
He stated that based on the visit the Indian High Commissioner seems “very inclined on doing it but we have to wait and see the results of those requests that were made.”
Additionally, the Agriculture Minister disclosed that his government and in particular, his ministry, is seriously pursuing public/private partnership and have already published in the newspapers “expression of interest for these estates”.
He added that it was a recent meeting with the Private Sector Commission and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce that they expressed their interest in investing in GuySuCo, “so I am very optimistic”.

“We have to ensure these factories keep running and keeping sugar alive so hopefully we can have international partners as well and I am hoping that when the expression of interest is closed to have a number of companies express interest of investing in GuySuCo. I am extremely happy that the commitments made in the manifesto is now being realized slowly here and very shortly we will intensify it.”
Minister Mustapha stated that when the PPP/C left office in 2015, the Skeldon Sugar Factory was already on a turn-around path but because there was very little effort and resources placed into keeping the factory alive and running by the APNU/AFC government, the structure and its operations deteriorated drastically.
“The factory at Skeldon when we left in 2015 was on the turnaround… the last crop of 2015 when they produced the target that they set themselves the coalition government at that time said that they have turned around that industry but the work that the PPP/C did overtime was responsible for that turnaround of that crop but eventually the old estate was left abandoned because of the old management. Some of the immediate issues raised with the estates during the tour were the broilers at the Blairmont Estate, it has to be manually cleaned every 24-hours, the same at the Rose Hall Estate.”
Several parts of the roof for the Rose Hall Estate had rotting zinc sheets with gaping holes; factory parts were rusted or corroded, the platforms have deteriorated; the chimney, the molasses tanks and factory need to be replaced.
A tour will also be conducted at the Enmore Sugar Factory in the near future, the officials said.
After entering office in 2015, the coalition closed four factories- Rose Hall, Skeldon, Enmore and Wales, sending over 7,000 workers home.
The PPP/C. which was re-elected this year, had promised to revitalized the estates. It is seeking investments for them now.

---

---