THE President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) Mr Komal Chand started to inform the public; and one of its principal objectives was to make available a reference to the quality of canes on the ground and the super salary for GuySuco’s chairman equivalent to $5M monthly wage package –even as the corporation now faces the task of producing at least 143,000 tonnes of sugar to meet the EU and local markets.

For many decades afterwards, it was reputed to be ‘a secret deal with the super salaries of GuySuco’s management and the board of directors–unwaveringly opposed to any forces of democratisation which challenged the hegemony of the state. And for instance, the cash-strapped GuySuco the reports on the number of acreage cultivated and production were constantly out of line with the findings of an independent survey.
The modern sugar factory at Skeldon and other estates automatically will be forced to establish such vital performance as yields per acre and the ratio of sugar produced to cane utilised has declined.
While the emphasis is to place the quality of canes in the ground according to Mr Komal Chand and quotas, this was the rallying cry throughout the years.
The resultant exporting of 143,000 tonnes sugar will not be met or surpassed if the nation’s sugar estate system continues to smoulder. .The Skeldon sugar estate crisis that began some years ago is still with us. Yet it is this very policy – and the resultant  low production that is perpetuating the crisis and undermining our economy, as well as the EU market.
The weak board decisions grossly distorted the markets and the sugar industry’s balance sheet.
There is no denying that Guyana was once ‘Sugar King ‘and was in the forefront of scientific innovation in the Caribbean sugar industry.