…but Enmore packaging plant must be ready before end of September
Guyana is to benefit from a sum of €15.2 million from the European Union as part of the accompanying measures to cushion the effects of the removal of the preferential price; but the money will come only if the Enmore Packaging plant is completed ahead of schedule. This comes more than one year after Guyana failed to meet the requirements for an earlier tranche of the funds to the tune of €6 million which had to be foregone.
Speaking to officials from the Board of Guysuco and contracting firm Surrendra Brothers of Mumbai, India, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud on Monday said that all of the equipment for the factory must be in place before the end of September to benefit from the EU disbursement. The Minister was at the time inspecting the progress of the completion of the facility, which he said will be producing packaged sugar by November.
In early 2009, the Government of Guyana had challenged a claim by the European Union, arguing that the Guysuco business plan was submitted within the extended deadline of March 31, 2008. The Government of Guyana contended that all of the requirements for the disbursement of the tranche were met and noted that evidence to this effect was provided to the European Commission Delegation here in Georgetown. Following Cabinet’s review of the business plan, the document was submitted to the EC Delegation in June 2008. According to a statement that the Government released, the EU took the position that the submission of the plan in June rather than by March 31, 2008 constituted a non-achievement of an indicator, hence no disbursement of funds. The Government had made a case for a reversal of the E.C. Delegation’s decision since its considered position was that the conditions as described in the financing agreement between the EU and the Government of Guyana were met.
Government also contended that there is no requirement in the agreement for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to be submitted for the purpose of qualifying for sugar sector budget support.
With the cuts to the price paid to Guyana and other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producing states and the recent weakening of the euro, Guysuco will see income cut by almost 50 percent from this year.

Labour concerns
Minister Persaud said that turnout of labour across the industry has not been at the required level at the required time. He said there were factors of the weather and workers themselves are asking that the company use more mechanized methods for transporting and loading the cane.
“We are going through that shift from an industry that is heavily dependent on labour, where labour itself is asking that we introduce some element of mechanisation,” he said.
“We have to constantly work with the union; work with the workers,” he said, adding that there were advertisements in the press encouraging the workers to come out. He said too that the company had resorted to transporting workers.
“That’s why some years ago mechanization was pursued. Critics of the industry were saying that this was done to remove labour or reduce labour. But we are not getting enough labour as it stands. We have always maintained that there is a place for every committed employee in this industry. [We want to] ensure that everyone who works in the industry stays in the industry,” the Minister said. “We are trying to create that space, but at the same time we have to deal with the reality,” he said.
The Minister said there is a keen and focused eye on cost reduction at Guysuco. “Much more has to be done but this is also influenced by external factors,” he said, noting that the corporation is making changes in terms of management and agronomic practices.
“There have been cost-cutting measures implemented. Close to a billion dollars [was saved] just because of improvement in procurement practices and allowing you to invest in other areas; also in the fields too, looking to see how it is you can improve agronomic practices and at the same time bring down costs,” the Minister said.
He said this is influenced also by external factors since the industry has to source material and the movement of fertilizer prices alone can have an impact. He said too that efforts to reduce cost will be accelerated once the investments that the Government is making take effect. But the Minister said it is not an overnight process, “but we’re in for the long haul, to ensure that we have a very viable sugar industry.”
The Minister said Guysuco went from making a loss of $6 billion in 2008 to making almost $100 million in profit last year. He said that the company’s fortunes were bolstered by the highly contentious $4 billion injection from the sale of land by Guysuco to the Government of Guyana for the development of 10,000 house lots.