The history of Guyana is one of sugar and therefore it could be argued that Guyana and sugar are synonymous. From its early days of colonization, the sugar industry was the backbone of the national economy and still is albeit other industries such as rice, mining and forestry are also increasing their contributions. However, the sugar industry still remains our largest one with some 20,000 employees and thousands of others indirectly employed and contributing about 20% to our GNP.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, who holds responsibility for the sugar industry, in his address to the hundreds gathered at the Blairmont Estate honours roll ceremony, said that Guyana’s foundation was built through the hard work, sweat and blood of sugar workers.
In the early days of the industry working conditions were tough and gruelling, but due to the persistent struggle of sugar workers led by the PPP and GAWU, working conditions and wages improved significantly. Of course prior to the formation of the PPP and GAWU(originally GIWU), our late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan virtually stood up alone against the sugar plantocracy  who were ripping of this country and ruthlessly exploiting sugar workers.
It was Dr. Jagan’s agitation against the appalling living and other conditions of sugar workers which led to the establishment of the Venn Commission of Inquiry whose recommendations resulted in dramatic improvements of the lot of sugar workers. But sugar workers’ struggles seem endless because despite these improvements, there were still many other ills within the industry with one of those being the struggle for  recognition of the union (GAWU) of their choice and this battle was indeed an epic one as it lasted from 1948 to 1977.
Following the nationalization of the industry in 1975 it began to decline continuously, because of mismanagement and fluctuation of sugar prices on the world market, so much so that in one year sugar production plummetted to an incredible 129,000 tonnes-the lowest ever in the history of the industry. In addition, three of the 11 estates were also closed down.
With the advent of the PPP/C to government the industry was returned to viability and production began to increase until a few years recently when the industry began to experience severe difficulties. This of course was due to a combination of several factors including adverse weather, unstable industrial relations, factory downtime, decrease of world market prices and to crown it off, the end of EU preferential prices regime resulting in dramatic cuts in prices.
This situation triggered an inquiry to determine the factors that were hindering production and recommend corrective measures and one of them was restructuring of management which has yielded positive results, because the performance of the industry appears to be on the upswing under the stewardship of CEO Paul Bhim, who has a long association with the industry, being a long-serving Finance Director.
Government also injected a lot of funds into the industry under its strategic plan-some $40 billion over the last eight years.
The first crop for this year, even though it fell short of its target, mainly due to adverse weather, was very encouraging and if the weather holds out for this crop it is most likely that the national target would be met. This crop therefore could signal the return of the sugar industry to its glory days which would bring benefits to all stakeholders and to the national economy.