THE Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. has noted comments attributed to Chairman of IPED, Dr. Yesu Persaud regarding the current operations of the industry published in the Friday April 1st 2011 edition of the business section in the Stabroek News.

The article quoted Dr. Persaud’s assessment of the local economy contained in the IPED 2010 Annual Report that “poor management and unnecessary political interference continue to plague Guyana’s struggling sugar industry.”

He also goes on to state “that human resources and cash flow problems apart, the ‘sugar’ industry is in dire need of a non political solution.”

However, the article does not go on to state whether Dr. Persaud listed the instances he deemed were unnecessary political interference and what exactly was his non political solution to overcome the challenges of the State run Industry of which he was appointed Vice-Chairman following the acquisition of the private sugar estates by the then government and formation of GuySuCo on May 26 1976.

The Corporation also finds strange, Dr. Persaud’s firm stance against interference affecting the rebuilding process of the industry, when the Demerara Distillers Limited of which he is also Chairman had resorted to moving to the High Court to block the intended US10 Million investment in the local industry by Angostura of Trinidad and Tobago for which an MOU was signed in 2003.

This investment was envisaged to complement that of the Skeldon Modernization project in Region 6 to ensure it was in a better position to counter the anticipated challenges the industry is currently faced with and taking into consideration that the alcohol business has always been more profitable as opposed to GuySuCo’s current status quo of producing sugar and selling its molasses.

Over the years, DDL has also benefitted from a fair price in comparison with world market trends in purchasing molasses from GuySuCo. Incidentally, this industry has also facilitated Mr. Persaud’s company in its many development and expansion plans to date not forgetting the production of its world class rum.

It is quite unfortunate that when the industry is beginning to show signs of improvement despite the challenges posed by both external factors and those noted by Mr. Persaud himself, he would resort to making such a regrettable statement, which only serves to demoralize and undermine the efforts achieved thus far in reviving the sugar industry in Guyana.