GUYANA Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) said yesterday that with just a few more days of operations before year end, it has had reasonable weather to facilitate harvesting as the estates begin to wind down operations for this crop. “However, harvesters’ attendance continues to be a sore issue, particularly since every tonne of cane we can produce is so vital for our finances currently and market commitments,” said a source who requested anonymity.
The source said: “As you can see, attendance is dismal and we have been appealing for our harvesters to turn out, especially with the fairly reasonable weather to maximise whatever sugar we can produce.”
Providing information showing that sugar production for the crop, to date, is 138,774 tonnes and 220,669 tonnes, overall, for the year, the source further revealed that the average turnout of harvesters for yesterday was 11 per cent and, for the week to date, nine per cent.
A total of 335 punts were loaded yesterday and the La Bonne Intention (LBI) factory is grinding but those at Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Wales are out of cane.
Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference last week Monday, in NCN’s Georgetown studio, GuySuCo Chairman, Dr. Nanda Gopaul said the low turnout, of 48.8 per cent, hurts the chances of achieving more production.
The Chief Executive Office (CEO), Mr. Paul Bhim, who also spoke at that forum, disclosed that the corporation still owes $2.4 billion in debts, $1.6 billion of which is overdue.
He said it has a debt of US$4M (G$800M) to ING Bank of the Netherlands and an overdraft of G$3.2 billion at local commercial banks.
Bhim said, due to the high level of indebtedness, GuySuCo will, probably, continue crop operations through January 7, 2011.
“We have no choice. We really need to get some sugar to send to Europe and earn the corporation some badly needed cash in order to pay our bills,” he admitted.
Bhim said if the corporation had been able to produce 265,000 tonnes of sugar, it would have taken care of its debts without resorting to depending on the Government for a financial bailout.
It would have been able to offer “a fairly decent wage increase,” he reiterated.
Bhim said the production shortfall, 45,000 tonnes, would have garnered about G$5 billion cash but GuySuCo hopes to produce close to 310,000 tonnes of sugar next year.