Sugar – a financial blackhole

Jul 27, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Sugar is sucking the life out of Guyana. Year after year, and budget after budget, King Sugar has grabbed a sizable share of the billions coming out of those provisions, including supplementary ones. Make no mistake, sugar at one time and for a long time, the local reigning monarch, is now reduced to the ragged, wretched state of King Lear caught up in one raging storm after another.
Plenty of money has been thrown at it, and for a while, those many billions made sense. There are many families and communities involved, and whose collective welfare are at stake. But, as in everything in this life, there comes a time when stock has to be taken. It is time, long past the time, to take stock of where we are with sugar, what has been put into it, and what can be expected from it, if anything long-term, all things properly weighed and measured. It is from what could be more beneficial to those most closely attached and sure to feel the brunt of all the negatives that could result from making the decisions necessary to deal with the local sugar industry constructively.
We are throwing huge amounts of scarce money after a business that is struggling to rise from underwater. Despite all the frequent infusions of heavy money, there has not been much of the improvements needed, expected. The product itself is part of the problem, and its place on the world stage is under ongoing distress. The same could be said for some of its more senior people, who don’t seem to have what it takes to put their arms around the enormous tasks at hand, and get the job done, with a nod to all the challenges that the sector faces.
Considering all the above, it would be the substance of what is reasonable to take a long, hard look at what needs to be done with the sugar industry. It needs radical surgery, but we are all aware of the pain and agony what even the best of such treatments can inflict. Organisational chemotherapy may be too much, especially if administered too sharply and quickly. A more measured approach using milder medicines would fit the bill, one that has in mind the long-term prospects of workers and their families, particularly those not at the top layers, who can take care of themselves, always do anyhow.
Clearly, what is called for is a slow phase-out of sugar in this country, which it is believed that the leaders in this PPP/C Government know all too well. Such an approach has to be structured, and always with a view on how to accommodate those at the grassroots level of this hurting business. More oil money (something resisted by our leaders) could mean more available to look after new starts for sugar workers in new businesses coming from new ideas about the extent of what they are worth. As a matter of course, there could be a breaking away from the longstanding and ongoing dependency on boosts and bailouts from annual budgets, now the norm. There would be that confident individual independence to start from scratch, but while looking in totally different directions with new horizons in mind, and all flowing from new visions about selves.
In this our new age of oil, we need this kind of citizen and this type of mentality in our workforce. It must be a workforce, sugar or no sugar that is self-confident, assertive, and brimming with ambitions that go beyond the mould for self and offspring. It is our belief that workers in the local sugar sector could be motivated to start thinking in this way. But this would only come about, if leaders in politics and management are prepared to encourage such initiative, rather than the piecemeal approaches that have been tried but only contributed to prolonging the agony of a business that is clearly on trembling legs.
While the above is placed on the table, there is complete understanding of applicable politics, demographics, and the significance of a devoted voting base to be considered. Nevertheless, better can be done for sugar by empowering workers, and not viewing them as chips.

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