… GuySuCo, Minister of Agriculture assure
THE Guyana Sugar Corporation said that it has cut in half its domestic sugar supplies in response to reports of persons hoarding the commodity, but it assured the situation would be normalised by the end of this week. Reports from around the markets indicated that there was a shortage in the sweetener and speculation has been rife about the reason for this.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle yesterday, Deputy CEO of GuySuCo, Rajaindra Singh, said, “There is no shortage [in terms of production] but the quota has been cut by half.”

He said that the corporation thought that there was a hoarding of the commodity and hence it took the measure as a way of safeguarding its quota to the European Union.
“We are trying to finalise our European Union quota for this year,” the Deputy CEO said. “We deliberately put out half the normal quota,” he said, adding that normal supplies will resume this week.

Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle in an invited comment yesterday, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that GuySuCo must be more vigilant to pre-empt these situations before they arise.

“They need to be more vigilant to ensure that there are sufficient local supplies,” the minister stressed.
He however said this situation was not an indication that the company is unable to meet its international quota obligations.

“[GuySuCo] is keeping its production levels in line with [its quota for Europe],” the minister said.
He said that the issue seems to be one of kinks in the distribution network on the local market.
“I have asked the management of GuySuCo to investigate this distribution matter,” he said, also assuring that the situation will be speedily remedied.