AGRICULTURE Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy has disclosed that GUYSUCO

is working towards the surpassing of this crop’s target of 155,000 tonnes of sugar, as the Skeldon Factory which was rehabilitated recently is beginning to work as anticipated.
“When we first operationalised Skeldon it was providing a TCTS (tonne of cane per tonne of sugar) above 15 and even as high as 20. This was because the factory had a number of design flaws. The TCTS so far this crop has been averaging about 12-13 and we expect that as the crop gets more advanced, the TCTS will be reduced to under 12. This is what the factory was initially designed to do,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
This is indeed encouraging news for the troubled sugar industry which has been suffering from plummeting production in recent years.
The turning around of the sugar industry is heavily dependent upon the optimum levels of production by the Skeldon Factory.
“We are approximately 95,000 tonnes for the year, which means that we are approaching 50,000 tonnes for this crop. The first crop was 48,000 tonnes…we are optimistic that, given the right weather conditions, Skeldon will respond in a positive way,” the minister said.
Dr Ramsammy is correct when he said that, with an extended grinding period for this crop, it is possible to surpass the 155,000-tonne target but the weather holds the key. So we would all hope that the weather stabilises during the next few weeks, facilitating harvesting and the maintenance of high sucrose content which is vital to productivity.
And on this note, while increasing production is essential, equally important too is the need to continuously strive for increased productivity because the survival and sustenance of our sugar industry is highly dependent on our ability to compete on the global market.
We have a great advantage in that, apart from Belize, we are the only sugar producing country in the Caribbean.
In order to continuously increase productivity levels, which of course will be significantly helped by the Skeldon Factory, we also intensify research aimed at producing higher-yielding and weather resistant varieties of sugar cane.
We could also seek technical assistance from the largest producers of sugar, such as Brazil, India and Cuba. And also learn from their successes. And this should not be a difficult proposition as we share excellent relations with these countries.
However, the sugar industry could face another snag this year as global prices for sugar is likely to fall as we are not guaranteed preferential prices anymore with the end of the Sugar Protocol with the EU.
World sugar production in 2012/2013 is estimated to reach a new record that will exceed projected global consumption, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said.
FAO explained that the expansions in Brazil, as well as the United States, Australia and China are expected to offset declines in India, the EU and Thailand.
Though it said world sugar consumption was forecast to grow by about two per cent in 2012/13, amid falling domestic sugar prices, it stated that world sugar trade was anticipated to contract in the same period due to “lukewarm import demand from the traditional importing countries”.
The report observed that prospects for abundant domestic crops in the least developed countries, low-income food-deficit countries, and countries in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to limit their import needs.
But whatever is the situation, turning around our sugar industry in Guyana is an imperative and not an option because it has been and still is a mainstay of our national economy. It still is our largest industry employing directly and indirectly over 20,000 people. Therefore, its failure could spell catastrophic long term consequences for Guyana.