-has already topped 50,000 tonnes for current crop
THE Guyana Sugar Corporation’s production was projected to surpass 10,000 tonnes by weekend as improvements in the weather bring a turnaround in the company’s fortunes.
A company official told the Chronicle on Wednesday that it was not until the beginning of the new week that it will know whether the company was able to achieve the milestone.
“We are hoping to hit the 10,000 tonne mark; we will know [whether or not we did] in the new week,” said the Guysuco official. The source with whom this newspaper spoke said that all of the factories have been producing over the past few weeks.
According to the official, for the past two weeks, production was just under 10,000 tonnes each week, and with the weather continuing to be fair, it is quite possible that the company may surpass this figure this week. The official said too that the company has already surpassed the 50-tonne mark for the second crop that started in July, for which a target of 190,000 tonnes has been set.
“As the weather improves, we will see increases in production. The first crop was severely hampered by the weather, which affected harvesting operations. The start of the second crop was also affected by bad weather. But as the weather improves, what we have been seeing is the gradual increase in production,” he said.
Noting that sometimes there is still the need to do harvesting manually, since the weather will not allow the mechanised harvesters to function in an optimal manner, the official expressed the hope that the weather holds for the rest of the year in order for the Corporation to continue having good results.  “We are confident that we have the canes in the ground, but our concern is that the good weather continues so that we can take those canes out,” he said.
The 2010 production target has been revised downwards to 264,000 tonnes from 280,000 tonnes, owing to the dry weather last year that hindered land preparation for the first crop, and the difficulties wet weather presented prior to the commencement of the second crop.
Last year, the corporation had a production of 233,000 tonnes. The target for the first crop of 2010 was set at 91,675 tonnes, but the corporation only achieved 81,864 tonnes. Further, Guysuco in 2009 achieved a first crop of 83,289 tonnes.