Money spent on GUYSUCO going down a ‘black hole’-AFC

Jun 28, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News – The Alliance For Change (AFC) believes that any money pumped into the ailing Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) will be going down a ‘black hole.’

A black hole is a region in space where gravity is incredibly strong, so much that nothing, not even light, can escape. This extreme gravity arises from the immense density of matter packed into a tiny space.

AFC executive member Khemraj Ramjattan told reporters Friday, that it again seems to like the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) government has plans to spend huge amounts of money, probably for electoral reasons, on a sector that has gone down the drain in the worst way possible.

He reminded that the AFC has made several statements on the sugar industry even while in government in 2016 under the coalition. He noted the expertise of Errol Hanoman who made it clear that right-sizing was the best way forward for the corporation to be made profitable.

This could have been achieved by, “namely merging of estates, but also the… what you call fading away of certain factories, and we have identified those because what was needed was good support for the factories that could have made it with the estates having the sugar supplying them, so that at least the sector could be in survival mode,” he explained.

Ramjattan reminded that the coalition has sent over $42 billion during a five-year period but it appears the current administration will be spending more than that in the sector, “because, of course, we had decided that money is spent there is literally going down a black hole. I want to indicate that, as we have said before, there are reasons why this industry was run down, and it was long before the APNU/AFC came into government.”

He said further, that the PPP when previously in government, had received over US$100 million from the European Union, but the funds were never directed to the rehabilitation of factories, construction work or drainage and irrigation on the estates.

The politician stressed that the younger generation would not want to get involved in the world of GuySuCo because of the back breaking nature of the job, leaving the estates literally abandoned in the future. Additionally, he stressed that mechanisation of the land with the type of soil present, will be almost impossible as when it rains the clay will get soggy, making it difficult.

“Then the capital investment needed for what is called all the deteriorating structures that are there will be too massive, but most of all will be the price in the world for sugar. We will continually, even with all if we solve the problem of capital investment, we’ll still have a price in the world market that will be lower than our cost of production, and to that extent, it is quite clear that the country will not have sugar,” Ramjattan lamented.

According to Ramjattan, changing chief executive officers (CEO’s) will not fix the sugar problem.

“That was, I think, the last statement I made because, of course, these CEOs that they take are just political loyalists. Hello, take, for example, Sasenarine Singh, he did so badly in it, but he got promotions, and he went Brussels as our chief ambassador there,” he said.

Last week President Irfaan Ali announced plans to diversify GuySuC0 beyond sugar and its by-products by producing rice, corn, and cassava.

“We have to think strategically of how we will expand the role of GuySuCo. And perhaps it is time for us to reimagine GuySuCo’s role altogether. Why must its mandate stop only at sugar? GuySuCo can and must become a hub of rural economic development,” the president said, at the 77th anniversary observation of the Enmore Martyrs, at East Coast Demerara,

Despite the government pumping billions of dollars into the sugar corporation, the company has failed to meet targets and, more so, become profitable.

President Ali said GuySuCo’s land, infrastructure and knowledge base could support the production of other crops as well as livestock operations, agro-processing hubs, farmer trading and extension services, fabrication and engineering services.

“The global machinery industry historically recruited machinists and fabricators from GuySuCo. We have to leverage this human capital and human potential. And in embracing this future that I speak of, there will be some exciting opportunities. Crop diversification, skills diversification, income diversification,” the president announced.

President Ali said that the plan to diversify GuySuCo will benefit sugar workers. “We don’t only want the sugar workers to rely on their income from sugar. We want to convert acreage of land into high-yielding production, high-value production, but production that is owned by the workers,” he said.

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• AFC, Black hole, GUYSUCO, Khemraj Ramjattan, Sugar industry

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