MORE focus and energy will be placed on increasing production, reducing the cost of production, enhancing the mechanisation programme, growing the market base, and diversifying the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) lines of business with new products, particularly value-added products. These are the sentiments of Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who has since disclosed to the Guyana Chronicle that efforts are moving apace in these regards – all in the interest of making the much-needed paradigm shift in the industry.

INCREASING PRODUCTION
“There were a number of initiatives that were embarked on in 2014 or that we intensified in 2014 that were intended to increase production over time. These are not one-time initiatives and are continuous,” he explained in an invited comment.
Dr. Ramsammy added that one initiative is to ensure the goal of 100 percent replanting every five years is rigidly adhered to.
He said, “This is to ensure increased cane production. With a 20 percent replanting target, the whole cultivation will be replaced every five years.
“This would mean that higher-yielding rations are in use. When the rations are used more than five times, the yield is lowered and GuySuCo is trying to ensure that as far as possible no use is made of fields older than five rations.”
The Agriculture Minister highlighted that in 2014 the industry was able to achieve a 20 percent replacement of old cane.

“This is a target we expect to maintain for an extended period of time. With this replacement target, we can increase cane production and also yield of sugar,” he said.
A major challenge, according to him, has been in the field, including action to reduce the burn-to-grind intervals.
Dr. Ramsammy said, “This has been a major challenge as the time to bring in cane from the fields to the factories have often proven to be a limiting factor and led to reduction of sugar yield.
“In 2014, we continued our efforts to reduce the time interval from the burning of cane to the factories for grinding. One important activity in this regard was the enhancing of the punt fleet.”
He indicated too that with enough punts and maximising the use of other machines, such as tractors, mechanical harvesters and bell loaders, the industry was able to improve the time interval from burning in the fields and to grinding in the factories.
GREATER EFFICIENCY
The Agriculture Minister had also earlier indicated that GuySuCo is also expected to analyse the effectiveness of the new initiatives that were introduced in 2014.
Efforts to address this, he stated, would include the use of briquettes for steam generation, bio-fertilisers and legume fallow, among its many other new initiatives.
To date, Dr. Ramsammy has assured that GuySuCo has continued efforts to increase factory efficiency.
“This meant further investment in factory repairs. All factories benefited from improved maintenance and in other improvement of operation. These activities are intended to improve TC/TS (tonnes of cane and tonnes of sugar ratio) and we expect that in the crops to come, we will see further improvement in the TC/TS,” he said.
GuySuCo’s operations cover several estates on the East Coast, West Coast and West Bank of Demerara and Berbice. The eight estates in total include Uitvlugt on the West Coast of Demerara; Wales, on the West Bank of Demerara; Enmore and La Bonne Intention, on the East Coast of Demerara; Rose Hall, Blairmont, Albion and Skeldon in Berbice.
COST REDUCTION
As it relates to initiatives to reduce cost, the Agriculture Minister stated that one of the key moves has been the use of bio-fertilisers.
“Fertilisers continue to be one of the big-cost items in the operation of GuySuCo. Currently 50 hectares per estate are using bio-fertilisers as we explore the possibility of replacing expensive chemical fertilisers with more affordable bio-fertilisers. With 50 hectares per estate, this means that a total of 400 hectares are under cultivation where we have replaced chemical fertilisers with bio-fertilisers,” he said.
There have also been intensified efforts, according to him, in replacing the use of wood to fire the factories.
“We piloted the use of briquette bagasse instead of wood in boilers. This initiative is being done alongside of other efforts to produce briquettes with rice husk and other bio-mass, including the giant king grass,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
Other actions taken by GuySuCo in 2014 to reduce cost of production include its continued studies with legume fallow to complement flood fallow.
“GuySuCo in 2014 more extensively reintroduced flood fallow, implemented energy conservation programme, implemented a security system to reduce loss of fuel, established quality control programmes and a project management unit,” he said.
The Minister of Agriculture also related that employing the use of mechanisation has also contributed to cost reductions.
Dr. Ramsammy said there was “enhanced mechanisation in several areas of operation. We continued to increase bell loader operation around the entire cultivation areas of GuySuo.
“Increasing use of mechanisation is being made for planting and other field activities. In 2014, there was an increase in mechanical harvesting of cane. But in addition to mechanisation in the field, we also enhanced mechanisation at the factory levels.”
MARKET BASE
On the issue of GuySuCo’s market base, the Agriculture Minister explained that efforts have begun in earnest to address this.
“Clearly, we have markets for our sugar. But we are looking at better-priced markets. In 2014, we secured sales to Italy starting with approximately 5,000 metric tonnes and re-entered the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) market,” he said.
In addition to exports, changes in GuySuCo’s line of business have met with success.
There has been the introduction of the sale of bottled molasses in Guyana and Trinidad, among other undertakings.
“We are also focusing our attention for molasses on the U.S. market. We will launch Enmore Crystals as a new value-added branded package sugar. We consolidated the small ethanol production plant at Albion and in 2015 we will seek to increase production of bio-ethanol. In 2014, we began also a feasibility study on a new distillery,” Dr. Ramsammy said.
BETTER DAYS AHEAD
He expressed confidence that despite the challenges, the local sugar industry is positioned for better days ahead.
The production being targeted by GuySuCo for 2015 is some 240,000 tonnes. In 2014, GuySuCo recorded a production of 216,147 tonnes – the first crop having surpassed the 75,000-tonne target, bringing in about 80,000 tonnes.
The industry saw a dismal sugar production level in the past years, but Guyana has since been taking steps to turn around its sugar industry and hopes to soon meet a 300,000-tonne target. There is also a projection that the sector would reach a 400,000-tonne goal by 2020.