The Skeldon Factory in full flow (Mike Charles photos)

I have become convinced that the naysayers, doomsayers, and the witch-hunting opposition cabal would like to see failure in this country, if only to be proven right in their optimistic predictions of failure of all this Government’s initiatives to provide the people of this nation with upward mobility in their several spheres of existential dynamics.

Beyond wishful thinking they strategize and create situations to effect and achieve their nefarious agendas, even if they have to use dishonest arguments and outright lies to do so – such as Kaieteur News publishing an old picture of an IFA-funded bridge that was built several years ago and saying that it is a current project which has cost taxpayers $23.3 million.

However, the collective opposition cabal must be gnashing their teeth in frustrated bitterness at the sweet success of the state-of-the art Skeldon factory.

The self-appointed pundits, in order to win votes in the sugar belt, predicted immediate closure of the Demerara estates if the industry was to remain somewhat viable in the wake of the EU’s projected 36% price cuts, several years ago.

The Skeldon Factory in full flow (Mike Charles photos)

The Government said no way was that going to happen, because they were going to take steps to ensure that sugar workers were not deprived of their daily bread.

The opposition cabal yet persevered in creating distrust and apprehension in the minds of the Demerara GuySuCo employees, but the Demerara estates remain operational.

However, the prognostications of the politically (and credibility)-challenged pundits continued down the years, with a grand celebration when the first run of the Skeldon estate did not meet up to expectations, necessitating some adjustments, which any fool knows is a likelihood in any major undertaking of this nature.

How chagrined they must have been to see the sugar flowing into the hands of Guyana’s President when he proudly commissioned GuySuCo’s flagship at Skeldon on Saturday 22nd August.

With the threatened price-cuts in the EU sugar protocols looming to derail the viability of the sugar industry in several countries, including ours, the Guyana government was forced to strategize to circumvent economic catastrophe in the industry and the nation, and they came up trumps with a visionary solution – a state-of-the art sugar factory projected to reduce production-cost and increase value-added production.

The Skeldon Factory in full flow (Mike Charles photos)

Several of the sugar-producing countries in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) union, of which Guyana is a member, were forced to abandon their sugar industries in the wake of the EU price cuts, but Guyana had no option but to reconfigure Guyana’s sugar-producing landscape to create different dynamics of viability, because sugar has been and continues to be our most significant foreign-exchange earner, with a $35B equivalency figure, and one of the largest (if not the largest) employer in the country, with an estimated workforce of 20,000 employees, which does not take into consideration the thousands of persons who are indirect beneficiaries of the industry.

The main opposition, and all the satellite organizations strung on their tails continuously take this Government to task on one contention or another, even fabricating, or exaggerating situations, incidents, and events to discredit government functionaries, including the President.

But the PNC Government, with all the advantages that it once enjoyed, drove the main industries of this country – bauxite, rice, sugar, into near-catatonic state, with no-one except the PPP protesting the cost to the workforce and the negative socio-economic impacts to the nation.

In1989 the PNC was importing beet-sugar from Guatemala (inadequate amounts at that) to meet Guyana’s needs because sugar-production had reached an all-time low (as did every industry in Guyana then).

The PNC government could not even support local consumption, much less meet the needs of our international markets, but the doomsayers, who have suddenly discovered hitherto-dormant social consciences, were silent then.

However, despite the EU price-cuts and the extant variables in the external forces currently playing havoc with our international markets, Guyana now has visionary leadership determined to circumnavigate the marshy grounds of the dynamics threatening the viability, even the survival, of our industrial configurations, and while the witch-doctors and the witch-hunters rattle their bones and chant gibberish to call down the wrath of the demonic forces on the PPP government, the visionary initiatives continue to point Guyana toward an eventual future of prosperity and plenty.

The Skeldon initiative was conceived in 1998 as part of GuySuCo’s strategic review and the commissioning of the US$185 million Skeldon factory marked the culmination of ten years of planning and execution.

The President adumbrated his and the PPPC’s recognition and commitment to modernizing the sugar, bauxite, and rice industries to make them globally competitive. The Skeldon factory is integral to restore sugar to the position of sovereignty it once enjoyed.

But the President, while recognising that this is the largest investment in financial terms in the history of the country, also applauded the larger investment of the workforce input into keeping King Sugar on its throne, albeit at times with a shaky crown, from the days of slavery and indentureship down to current times.

The President adjured Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud and other officials to ensure an increase in field production of cane to satisfy the 1.2 million tonnes requirement of the modernized factory. This will eventuate in increased employment opportunities for those willing to invest their efforts in the Government’s continuum of investments into the human capital of the country and restore prosperity in the sugar-producing belt of the nation.

However, this will be a gradual process, entailing co-operative and committed effort in a partnership involving management, the labour force, and the Government, which can only prevail in an environment where trust supersedes all other factors. This vital factor has been eroded to an extent, which has resulted in the demoralization of the workforce.

President Jagdeo posits that Guyana can produce 400,000 tonnes of sugar annually, but this is incumbent on all the enabling variables conjoining to enhance productivity of the industry and to make it operationally cost-effective so as to improve profitability, which will in turn redound to the benefit of everyone, especially the hard-working employees in the sugar industry.

The factory, which has a capacity to produce approximately 120,000 tonnes of raw sugar, will require about 1.2 million tonnes of cane annually if it is to function at optimum levels.

New lands are being cultivated in Manarabisi and at locations near the Skeldon estate and at Moleson Creek to meet the input requirements, which approximates to three times the amount needed by the old sugar mill.

The President stressed the necessity to expand on value-added initiatives with the Demerara Gold brand, along with the other diversification adjuncts to production, which include the conversion of cane into ethanol, generating electricity from bagasse to be supplied to the Berbice grid, among others.

The construction of a $2.4 billion packaging facility has already commenced at Enmore Sugar Estate.

On 20th December 2007 GuySuCo had begun supplying co-generated power to the Berbice grid. The co-generation factory has the capacity to supply 10 MW of electricity daily from one 5.0MW set and two 2.5 MW sets. Power is dispatched to the grid at 13.8k.V for the first phase of export and a 69kV transmission link is being installed to take the full output from Skeldon.

It has been reported that since the start of co-generation in December 2007 the incidence of load-shedding has been significantly reduced.

The President said that among the several challenges facing the sugar industry are the restoration of management capacity and efficiency, the deployment of innovative initiatives to increase the supply of cane, industrial stability, the development of new products with added value, and establishment of downstream industries.

He warned that sugar must pay its way and contribute to the national treasury.

However, sugar workers are disgruntled because they perceive that there is no real effort being made to address their concerns – which include arrogant management personnel who treats workers and their needs with no respect nor consideration, much like in colonial days, and the proclivity of functional superiors to misuse the facilities of the Corporation at great cost to the superstructure and consequential profitability of the entity, and eventually to the average employee in the sugar belt.

The workers are calling for one-on-one discussions with their President, much as they shared with Dr. Jagan in the days of yore.

Guyana is on the move, but for this momentum to be sustained there is need for all the players to be involved in participatory ways, as opposed to the destructive methodologies and strategies used to derail initiatives beneficial to the nation because it would negatively affect the Government and its image by persons with vested interests.

The visionary leadership of the current President and this government is meant to empower Guyanese as a nation, and any attempt to destabilize that upward trend of endeavour and achievement is unpatriotic at best, and treasonous at worst.

The sugar industry is this nation’s patrimony, and it is imperative that we all – every citizen of this land, guard this gift of our forefathers who, as the President said, gave their blood, sweat and tears for it to survive.

Guyana is on the move, but for this momentum to be sustained there is need for all the players to be involved in participatory ways, as opposed to the destructive methodologies and strategies used to derail initiatives beneficial to the nation because it would negatively affect the Government and its image by persons with vested interests.

The visionary leadership of the current President and this government is meant to empower Guyanese as a nation, and any attempt to destabilize that upward trend of endeavour and achievement is unpatriotic at best, and treasonous at worst. The sugar industry is this nation’s patrimony, and it is imperative that we all – every citizen of this land, guard this gift of our forefathers who, as the President said, gave their blood, sweat and tears for it to survive.