THE Guyana Sugar Corporation is moving to block an alleged widespread con by a New York-based distributor of its famous Demerara Gold brand of sugar, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said yesterday.

The corporation is taking legal action against the company and this country’s diplomatic missions in North America have been asked to buttress the efforts, he told the Guyana Chronicle.

“The counterfeiting of our Demerara Gold sugar is widespread and the company is registering the product name giving people in North America the impression that this is the genuine stuff”, the minister said.

The Agriculture Ministry said Guyanese in North America are being duped to purchase sugar, made in Mauritius, and packaged and labelled by Bedessee Imports Inc to suggest that it emanates from Guyana.

“The use of the mark DEMERARA GOLD on the main panel of the packaging incorrectly suggests that the sugar sold is genuine DEMERARA sugar”, the ministry said.

It alleged that Bedessee Imports Inc. has a reputation of dishonest marketing in branding and packaging its products to deceive West Indians residing in North America.

“In the case of sugar, Bedessee’s goes even further by reproduction of a representation of a map of Guyana on the main display panel”, the ministry said.

It is urging Guyanese in the diaspora not to purchase any product that is deceptive and misleading, creating an impression that they are made in Guyana.

“The Government of Guyana will engage its embassies in North America and give consideration to urgent legal redress”, it said.

Persaud said the con game also endangers Guyana’s efforts to widen its sugar product range on the international market.

Guysuco and Surendra Engineering Co. Ltd. of India last week signed a $2.6 billion contract for a modern sugar packing plant at the Enmore estate, East Coast Demerara.

When completed the upgrade of the process house and the packaging plant will have an output of 40,000 tonnes annually which can go up to 80,000 tonnes.

A key feature of the Guysuco marketing strategy is to expand the direct consumption market using its branded Demerara sugar range and the commissioning of the Enmore packaging plant is expected to significantly improve the corporation’s chances of growing this market with a superior product and five fold increase in availability.

The ministry said `Project Gold’ is the first sugar project under the Guyana National Action Plan and will result in the conversion of the total sugar output of the Enmore factory into high quality branded direct consumption sugars.

GuySuCo currently produces 8,000 tonnes of packaged sugars at its Blairmont operations.

The Agriculture Ministry said Guyana is the home of genuine Demerara Cane Sugars and `Project Gold’ will support the country’s objective to return the Demerara brand where it rightfully belongs.