AGRICULTURE Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy last Thursday night in the National Assembly, acknowledged the concerns expressed over the performance of the sugar industry.

(QUOTE) ‘In the first five weeks, GUYSUCO has already reached 45,000 tonnes or an average of 9,000 tonnes per week. By the time we get to the budget estimates, GUYSUCO would have surpassed its first crop of 2013 and still have five weeks of production ahead of it for the crop. Who says sugar is dead?’

He said: “No one in this House can be more disappointed and distressed about the performance of GUYSUCO (Guyana Sugar Corporation) than I am.”
He stressed that the industry is too important a one to fail.
However, A People’s Partnership for National Unity (APNU) shadow Agriculture Minister, Rupert Roopnarine had different contentions altogether. “An examination of the production figures say it all,” he declared.
SUGAR PERFORMANCE
Roopnarine explained that the Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh in his 2014 Budget speech, made it clear that the industry is all but collapsed.
“Government has transferred a total of US$195M to GUYSUCO over the period 2005 to 2013, in support of its various restructuring and turnaround initiatives…notwithstanding this infusion of funds we saw the industry plummet from 325,432 tonnes in 2004 to 189,000 tonnes in 2013,” he said.
However, Ramsammy countered that it is not the first time that sugar is in distress.
He said GUYSUCO’s recovery and 2014 will mark a turning point in the performance of the industry.
“We have made major changes in management and we have identified the members of the new board that will take control from July 1. After three years of failing to reach its targets, GUYSUCO is set to meet its 2014 target. In the first five weeks, GUYSUCO has already reached 45,000 tonnes or an average of 9,000 tonnes per week. By the time, we get to the budget estimates, GUYSUCO would have surpassed its first crop of 2013 and still have five weeks of production ahead of it for the crop. Who says sugar is dead?”

According to the Agriculture Minister, every sugar estate is performing within reach of their targets.
He said: “It’s the same workers, many of the same managers, same factories, but it is the first time in almost four years that GUYSUCO has had an extended period of favourable weather.”
He also addressed the functioning of the Skeldon Factory and made it clear that it is no understatement to say that Skeldon has not functioned to expectation.
“We continue to make progress in sorting out the issues at Skeldon. For this first crop 2014, the factory has increased on the tonnes/canes per hour processed. The factory has also improved tremendously with its weekly grinding hours with an average of 140 hours per week so far this crop. There is already a 25 per cent improvement in sugar recovery…Skeldon will meet its target,” Ramsammy disclosed.
‘SUGAR AND’ NOT ‘SUGAR OR’
Roopnarine argued that any support for the $6B allocation to the industry will require the presentation of a viable plan to lift GUYSUCO out of its indebtedness and production rut.
He said: “The problems are well known, but neither the Government nor GUYSUCO has any real command of them….we have to go beyond putting plasters on sores. We have to go to the root of the disease.”
The APNU Member of Parliament (MP) added that a serious look must be taken at the alternative to the current approach.
On that note, Ramsammy made it clear that government’s focus for the sugar industry is recovery and advance.
He said: “Those who harbour thoughts of the closure of the sugar industry are dead wrong.
“For those who harbour any thoughts of an exchange of sugar for tilapia or for ethanol-our answer is unequivocal sugar, in bulk and value-added forms, will continue to be a primary product. We can see by-products, such as rum and ethanol too with an important place. The PPP/C’s plan is sugar and not sugar or. The present assault on the sugar industry is reminiscent of the assault on the industry by PNC government in the late 1980s when they began the preparation to privatize the sugar industry. It’s an ugly truth that Mr. Harmon, Mr. Vieira, Mr. Greenidge and others in APNU and AFC want the nation to ignore and forget.
“In order to complete the privatisation of the industry, the PNC government in 1989 gave Booker-Tate an expensive management contract to manage the industry and prepare it for divestment under a World Bank/IMF Economic Reconstruction Programme (ERP). This preposterous plan in the late 1980s by the PNC is now surpassed by the idiocy of their present plan to replace sugar with tilapia.”
The Agriculture Minister explained that in current difficult times, when challenges seem more than opportunities, some may feel the need to savagely attack government’s efforts.
However, he pointed out that the workers and managers have been sticking to the task at hand – reconfiguration of the sugar industry for another century of leading the economic growth of Guyana.
INVESTMENT
The Agriculture Minister explained that the $6B allocation is geared towards the mechanisation drive of the industry, a drive that seeks to address the smaller labour pool that the industry now relies on and to improve on cane yields in 2014.
He said: “Land conversion costs will account for $1.1B with 2,500 hectares of land slated to be converted in 2014. Another $1B will be expended on the tillage and replanting programme this year with 9,600 hectares of land to be tilled and 9,224 hectares to be planted. Investments will also be made in legume and flood following programmes to further enhance cane yields.
“The corporation’s capital expenditure programme will also benefit from the $6B. In the agriculture capital programme investments will be made in our all-weather roads in all cultivations to improve on accessibility and timeliness of cane delivery to our factories. Additionally, purchase of various pieces of agriculture equipment will be made to further accommodate mechanisation in fertilising, weed control and harvesting.
“A portion of the $6B will be spent on capital programmes in our factories. These programmes include replacing old and outdated pumps, improvement of factory automation at Albion, works on the two punt dumpers at Skeldon and the upgrade of boilers at Uitvlugt.
“…I see a Guyana in which sugar continues in the long term to be a sweet story.”
Roopnarine argued that these promises have been voiced before, even as he acknowledged the realism of the 2014 plans.
“We see no evidence that convinces us that even the lower expectations can be achieved…in his (Dr. Leslie Ramsammy’s) 2011 presentation he told the House that GUYSUCO would produce 298,879 tonnes, in fact the production was roughly 189,000 tonnes, the worst in 20 years,” he said.
The APNU MP said the fact that the industry is in “deep crisis” needs to be squarely faced and a turnaround will only be possible with better management, not wishful thinking.
On that note, he reiterated his party’s call for a Commission on Inquiry into the malfunctioning GUYSUCO. “There needs to be an official inspection of the basic issues involved. GUYSUCO needs a root and branch overhaul and refitting,” Roopnarine contended.
The Agriculture Minister, in turn, made it clear that sugar will continue as a major pillar of our development.
He said: “We will continue to build the sugar industry to continue its role as a lead industry in our country and we will work with the sugar workers to ensure that their industry continues to provide employment and economic and social gains for our people and our country…sugar is Guyana’s past. Sugar is our present. Sugar is very much our future.”
By Vanessa Narine