‘Poor policies, weak oversight’ doomed GuySuCo – MP Jordan

Jan 11, 2026 News

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…as Pres. Ali laments missed 2025 target

(Kaieteur News) – Shadow Minister of Agriculture and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP) Vinceroy Jordan on Saturday said that the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) failure to meet its 2025 target is a result of government’s continued use of a failed model.

In a letter to the editor, published in Sunday’s edition of the Kaieteur News, Jordan made it clear that the government cannot continue to use the sugar industry as a bottomless pit for funds.

“The failure of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to meet its 2025 sugar production target is not surprising—it is disappointing, costly, and entirely predictable. What is shocking, however, is the continued refusal of the Minister of Agriculture to accept responsibility for this ongoing national embarrassment. (GuySuCo) has consistently revised its initial targets for every year it has set since taking Office in 2020 to the point that it even revised its revised targets and still failed to meet same,” he said.

Jordan reminded that he has repeatedly issued warnings in the National Assembly that the corporation was bound to fail because of the approach taken by the government. Instead, he said his warnings were ignored, arrogantly brushed aside and dismissed by the minister “who instead chose propaganda over planning and excuses over execution.”

“Year after year, billions of taxpayers’ dollars are poured into (GuySuCo) with little to show but missed targets, declining productivity, poor field management, labour shortages, factory inefficiencies, and weak leadership. The 2025 production shortfall is not an act of God—it is the direct result of poor policy choices, weak oversight, and a stubborn refusal to reform a failing model,” Jordan added.

The MP accused Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha of being consistent with overpromising and under-delivering, while offering bright projections to citizens, with the reality on the ground telling an entirely different story.

Rehabilitation of estates has been slow and ineffective, while mechanization continues to be inadequate, he said. Management accountability has been virtually non-existent with continued demoralisation of workers. In spite of these blatant failures Jordan said the minister “continues to behave as though GuySuCo’s collapse is someone else’s fault,” Jordan added.

The politician reiterated that the government cannot “continue to treat the sugar industry as a bottomless pit for public funds while offering no clear, credible, or realistic recovery plan. Sugar workers, their families, and the wider economy deserve better than recycled excuses and empty assurances.”

Furthermore, he said that the failure to meet the 2025 production target, vindicates what the opposition has been saying all along that without competent management, serious reform and honest leadership the corporation will continue along a failing path.

“The Minister of Agriculture must stop deflecting blame, come clean with the nation, and take full responsibility for this failure. The time for excuses is over. Accountability is long overdue,” Jordan added.

On Saturday too, President Irfaan Ali expressed disappointment that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) failure to meet its target last year.

In a brief statement via his Facebook page, he said that he met with the Board of Directors and Management of (GuySuCo), where he voiced his dissatisfaction “with the performance of estates’ management and their inability to achieve the 2025 targets.”

“The President informed management that every estate will be held accountable for achieving its targets, and that beginning with the first crop of 2026, estates that fail to meet their targets will see changes,” the statement added.

During the first six months of 2025, the sugar growing industry was estimated to have expanded by 136.7 percent when compared with the first half 2024. The corporation produced 15,954 tonnes of sugar in the first crop of 2025, compared with only 6,739 tonnes during the same period in 2024. The 2025 Mid-Year Report said heavy rainfall, labour shortages and cane quality affected further expansion from occurring.

Notwithstanding, the government said it was targeting an overall production of approximately 101,000 tonnes of sugar for 2025, with the second crop being traditionally the larger of the two crops.

However, sugar exports for the first half of 2025 dropped by $US3.6M or 4.063 metric tonnes, in spite of the price increasing by $US0.4. This is according to the Bank of Guyana’s (BoG) Half Year Report.

The report said that the export earnings for the time frame in question, amounted to US$3.6M which is 47.2 percent or US$3.2 million below what was earned for the same period ending June 2024.

“This outturn was attributed to a 47.2 percent decline in the volume of sugar exported despite a 0.1 percent increase in the average price for the commodity. The volume of sugar exported amounted to 4,533 metric tonnes or 4,063 metric tonnes less than the recorded export for the same period in 2024,” the report said.

The CARICOM region was responsible for 95.9 percent of total sugar exports, in comparison to 25.8 percent in 2024. Additionally, the United States of America (USA) under the USA Bagged accounted for 0.6 percent.

Even though the average export price saw an increase of 0.1 percent which translates to US$0.4 taking prices to US$784.77 per metric tonne, when compared with US$784.37 per metric tonne at the end June 2024, overall exports for the first six months were lower than 2024.

In December 2024, Kaieteur News reported that despite pouring billions into the sugar company with little results since it returned to government – the PPP/C Administration warned of a management shake-up if the underperforming state entity does not meet its target.

President Ali, during an interview with reporters said that he is aware of the challenges facing the corporation but is also cognizant of the management’s underperformance.

“We sat down with them [and] they brought together an investment plan that is needed to keep the factory efficient. We have supported that investment plan [and] I have made it very clear that if the target for 2025 (first and second crop target) is not met, then heads will roll,” President Ali was quoted in a Department of Public Information (DPI) press release.

The ailing sugar corporation has, over the years seen continuous decline in performance in terms of production, but has seen billions of dollars from the nation’s coffers being plugged annually into the industry.

In the 2024 mid-year report, Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh said the industry is estimated to have contracted by 60.4 per cent in the first half of the year, with production of 6,739 tonnes of sugar reported by the sugar company. This performance was attributed to the carried over impacts of drier-than-usual weather conditions.

Additionally, the Government said its interventions in the industry are aimed at diversifying and modernising the sugar industry, while reducing the cost of production. The same report stated that some 2,734 hectares of land were converted to support mechanised cultivation and harvesting of sugar cane at the Rose Hall, Albion, Blairmont, and Uitvlugt estates, bringing the total land converted to 8,400 hectares. Moreover, six additional cane harvesters were expected to be operational by the end of 2024, increasing the fleet to ten.

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• failure, GUYSUCO, Irfaan Ali, sugar

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