THE Guyana Sugar Corporation has said that over the past six months the World Market price for sugar has dropped significantly with a range of US$ 250 – 275 per tonne, which is in the vicinity of 12.5 cents per pound (c/lb).

Today 28 June, 2017, the price is US 12.66 cents per pound. In a statement GuySuCo said it supplies annually, 65,000 tonnes of bagged and packaged sugar to Caribbean and local markets. Another 12,000 tonnes of raw sugar is supplied to the North American market while the remainder which is also raw sugar, is sold on the European market. The supply to Europe for the Second Crop 2017 will total some 70,000 tonnes.

“The current forecast is that there will be a surplus of sugar on the World Market for the marketing year 2017/2018. In addition, from 1st October 2017, the European Union (EU) market will also see some radical changes since it is anticipated that significant additional amounts of beet sugar will be available for sale and this will compete directly with cane sugar. This may result in reduced sugar prices in Europe. Due to the competition with beet producers, the price paid by the refiners for raw cane sugar (as supplied by GuySuCo) will be more in line with the World Market Price, which currently is trading at US$275 per tonne and the forecast is that it will not increase significantly in the near future . The price at the commencement of the year was US$396 per tonne.”

According to the sugar company, the anticipated lower prices for the sugar sold will not assist the Corporation’s fragile financial position and poor liquidity will continue to pose a serious challenge in the upcoming Second Crop. “The Corporation is therefore encouraging its employees, particularly harvesters and planters, to turn out and assist their estates to harvest all canes in the cultivations and maximize on sugar production. Sugar-dependent communities are also urged to support the Corporation’s outreach drive to increase attendance on all estates for the Second Crop which starts mid-July.”

“We have a serious problem when it comes to that. We are about to start the second crop in the middle of July and attendance is a serious issue,” GuySuCo’s Communication Director, Audreyanna Thomas, told the Guyana Chronicle Tuesday. Thomas alluded to the company’s agriculture department which she said has the largest capacity of employees with the highest level of absenteeism, particularly among planters and harvesters. These workers are described as being extremely important assets to the company, since according to the communications director, if planters do not plant cane, then there is no money to be gained and if they do not plant enough and harvesters don’t attend work to reap, then there is less money to be gained.

This directly affects sugar-dependent communities, since they rely heavily on the activities of the sugar company for their economic gains. Thomas explained that while workers’ attendance has been an issue for GuySuCo for many years, the company’s current aim is to ensure the communities understand the damage that is done to the collective when the company cannot perform because of absenteeism.

In an effort to save the crop, GuySuCo has thus organized a number of outreaches in mainly sugar estate-based communities to implore not only workers, but key village personage and other stakeholders to assist in maintaining the operations that directly benefit the community.

GuySuCo’s public statement said that engagements will be held with stakeholders at Wales, Uitvlugt, Enmore, Albion, Rose Hall, Skeldon, among others. The outreaches will commence this Thursday, June 29 and end July 6.

The focus of these meetings will be on ‘The Role of Communities in Improving Attendance on Estates for the Second Crop 2017’. GuySuCo said it wants to mobilise cane harvesters, planters and cane transport operators, their families and communities around the importance of improving attendance at all estates in order to sustain the industry. The company said it wants employees to turn out to work to ensure that the canes are harvested within the crop. Government’s intention to restructure and downsize the financially strapped state company saw strikes at various estates. GuySuCo had mentioned that during the first crop at Rose Hall, for instance, the sugar company lost $17m in revenue in one day when workers engaged in strike action which left unattended cane to spoil. The workers in turn lost some $7m in wages.

GuySuCo has called out the Guyana Agriculture Workers’ Union (GAWU) for encouraging strike action that results in both workers and the industry losing millions of dollars respectively.
Amidst the communication on the second crop, Thomas said, the company hopes to clarify any other industry-related questions and concerns stakeholders may have, based on the future of the sugar company. She indicated that there are areas of misinformation and untruths fed to workers that must be clarified.

Thomas highlighted that absenteeism is one reason that could be highlighted in the company’s decisions to merge some estates. She pointed out, for example, that this is one reason why Wales’ workers are being asked to go over to Uitvlugt, “to boost operations by bridging that gap and improving production there.”