THE political bias of the sugar industry emerges most clearly in its commitment to the opposition sides. The third Biennial Congress of the People’s National Congress held between August 22-26, 1979 under the theme ‘Towards the People’s Victory’ Comrade Desmond Hoyte, member of the Central Executive Committee, Legal Adviser to the PNC General Secretary and Minister of Economic Development and Co-operatives, admitted that many productive assets are either not being used at all or are producing below capacity.
The Diamond Sugar Estate, he admitted, had a capacity of 65,000 tonnes a year, but has never produced more than 47,000 tons of sugar. The systems malfunction and operated inefficiently because of inadequate maintenance or failure to correct some minor faults. Many hectares of good agricultural sugar land are idle or inefficiently utilised.
The sugar industry produced its highest sugar production in 1992 for the past 18 years. Production stood at 273,000 tonnes.The forecast for the spring crop for 2001,was not a bright one.However,production was bountiful  as the years continued, due to unseasonal weather some crops were affected adversely. Due to the fall of the Euro vis-a-vis the corporation faced a challenging time as the Euro is yet to recover from its tumbled position since it came into being on January 1997.
The World Bank study recommended the closure of the Demerara estates. If the corporation does not follow the instruction then the Bank will not support the funding for the realization of the Strategic Plan. Closure of the Demerara estates at that point in time would have aggravated the poverty situation in Guyana and increased the unemployment and under-employment situation. The industry therefore  had be able to produce an alternative arrangement in order to move the industry forward without the closure of the Demerara estates and at the same time ensure the implementation of the Strategic Plan.
The Euro moved from 1.07-US$1 at the start of that year to a low of 0.83-US$1. All sugar and other industries in the region were subsidised by their governments; at that time GUYSUCO did not enjoy such a privilege.
Minister of Agriculture Mr. Robert Persaud, appointed a new Board and they proposed a strategic plan which will see it less reliant on the Euro as a source of revenue and targets a reduction in the cost of producing sugar from US21 cents per pound to US11-12 cents per pound. To achieve this, GUYSUCO is targeting expansion in the best cane -growing areas in the country to reduce unit cost and take advantage of modernization.