Pres. Ali using Guatemala figures to say sugar viable in Guyana

Mar 11, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – The Guyana Sugar Industry has been underperforming for years due to a number of factors – two of them being the high cost to produce the sweetener here and the lack of preferential markers, but President Irfaan Ali still believes it is wise to invest billions in revitalizing the sector.

In order to convince Guyanese that sugar is still viable in Guyana, Ali is now using statistics and figures from another country, Guatemala, to buttress his arguments. At a news conference, which he held on Sunday, the Guyanese leader told reporters of all the successes and profits Guatemala is gaining from its sugar industry. Explaining why he is highlighting the positive statistics of Guatemala, the President said, “Now you may ask why am I giving this statistic from Guatemala, but is for us to have an understanding, because sometimes people ask how viable sugar is and so.”
According to the President, Guatemala with its 11 functioning sugar mills is the fourth largest sugar exporter in world and the second largest in Latin America, raking in over a US$1 billion annually. He added too, Guatemala’s sugar industry produces some 80,000 jobs directly and another 410,000 indirectly. “They have 11 sugar mills, the cultivation area is 251,000 hectares and the yield is 10.7 metric tons per hectare”, said Ali.
Convinced that because of Guatemala’s success, Guyana can succeed too, the President added: “In Guyana, we have in total land available about 49,000 hectares for sugar and our yield is between 4 to 5 tons per hectare. I am just giving you this analysis so you can understand that we can cooperate and collaborate in terms of food security and the sugar industry”.
It should be noted that Guatemala’s success is largely owed to it finding a way to produce sugar in the most economic way. Guatemala’s sugar mills are also equipped with modern technology that allows the country to produce profitable by products from sugarcane.

According to the Guatemalan Sugar Association (ASAZGUA), its sugar plants are self-sustainable and aid in keeping cost of production cheap. Not only are the plants self-sustainable but it also contributes some 1,844 Gigawatts of renewable energy to the country’s grid. The association in its own words stated on its website, sugarforfood.com “In Guatemala, sugarcane is more than just a plant to produce sugar. The Guatemalan Sugar Industry generated 1,844 GWh renewable energy during 2020-2021; this has allowed the mills to be self-sufficient and provide the country with 35% of the national energy demand during harvest season”.
While Guatemala is well positioned to make huge profits and possibly become the largest sugar producer in the world, Guyana is yet to properly position itself to compete with Guatemala. President Ali is working towards signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Guatemala and believes that Guatemala will assist Guyana in making its sugar industry profitable too.
However, Guyana is now working on initiatives to reduce the cost of the energy in the country by embarking on what critics say is a costly gas to shore plant. The country is also hoping that this year that the ground works for its Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project will begin. In the meantime, its Sugar industry and production continues to decline every year.
Guyana Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, in the 2022 budget speech told the National Assembly that sugar production decreased in 2021. He blamed the reduction on the severe floods that the country had experienced that year. He said, “This reflects the destruction of some 4,300 hectares of cane in inundated fields in the first half of 2021. It is estimated that approximately 35 percent of the standing cane for the second crop was lost as a result of the May/June floods”.
Although the floods did play a major role in the decline of sugar production, the industry’s consistent failure did not just start in 2021. The previous coalition administration had tried to keep the sector alive too and had failed. In 2015 to 2017, it gave $32B dollars to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) with sugar being produced at a loss-making three times for what it is being sold for. The Coalition was forced to shut down four major sugar estates – Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales – because they were costly to maintain. Still trying to revive the industry, it decided to divest the four estates just to get money to invest in the industry but it continued to fail. The current People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) administration when it was in campaign mood promised to find a solution and revitalize the industry. Since it took office in August 2020, it has been pumping billions into the sector but to date, Guyana is yet to see good returns.

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