By Alva Solomon

CITING consensus as a necessity for the future of the sugar industry, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has called on the Guyana sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to intensify consultations with workers and related organisations.The Prime Minister issued the call at Enmore, East Coast Demerara on Thursday afternoon at a ceremony to mark the 68th anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs.

Speaking to a sizeable crowd which included several Government ministers, members of the diplomatic community and trade unionists, among others, Nagamootoo said the Government stands ready to transform the sugar industry.
And on this note, he pointed to diversification of plantation lands, and opening up new opportunities for wealth-creation and sustainable livelihoods in the sugar belt.
The Prime Minister said the industry must not become a political football and called for consensus on the new direction of the industry.
“I today invite all stakeholders, the workers, their unions, the political opposition, business and investors to be part of this new vision, to be part of this new, vibrant Guyana,” he said.
Pointing to diversification of the industry, the Prime Minister noted that the variation call for the development of the sector dates back to as far as the 1980s.
He said the concept was not one which developed under the APNU+AFC Government.
“Since the mid-1980s, the plan was to diversify production, there were plans for other crops, for aquaculture or fish farms, for dairy industry,” he said, adding: “We must invest in and modernise the best factories to produce at less costs, and to make not only sugar, but ethanol and more molasses for the alcohol industry.”
He noted that estate lands that are no longer profitable for sugar must be divested and he singled out peasant cane-farmers and agro-processors in the production chain.
VALUE-ADDED
“That is why we must shift to value-added products. We need to produce more refined and packaged sugar,” he said.

He also called on GuySuCo to diversify to include aquaculture, cultivation of legumes, fruit crops, citrus, dairy and livestock farming.
“Lands can be given to workers who grow and supply GuySuCo with vegetables, fruits and milk. GuySuCo must provide packaging and handling facilities, and marketing,” he added.
Nagamootoo also informed that the July 2015 report from the Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry indicated that if nothing is done to save the industry, not only would sugar “perish,” but the entire economy would sink.
He said this warning was nothing new, since some 20 years ago in 1996, the National Development Strategy (NDS) had issued a warning that the costs of keeping employment in the sugar industry was going to cripple the industry .
According to the Prime Minister, bracing its survival, the sugar industry was existing on credit and borrowed funds. The sugar debt rose from $55.3B in 2006 to $91B in 1991 and in 2014, the figure stood at $118B.
According to him, huge sums have been put aside over the years to prop up the industry, including a $21B sum which the David Granger Administration has provided to the entity in bail-outs between 2015/2016.
“Today when we look at the sugar industry, we wonder what it would take to transform the crude labour that it requires,” he noted.
He said that large sums are being expended to keep a similar system in place, “to keep thousands of our working people trapped in back-breaking routines.”
The Prime Minister noted that the Bharrat Jagdeo Administration had pointed to the modernisation of the sector as a viable means for its survival, with the multi-million dollar Skeldon Sugar Factory as the vehicle to transform the industry.
DEAD
He noted however, that “Skeldon is dead” while the industry is surviving.

Earlier, Nagamootoo and other speakers including Kenneth Joseph of the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE), Lincoln Lewis of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and Seepaul Narine of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) paid tribute to the Enmore Martyrs.
The names Pooran, Surujballi, Rambarran, Harry and Lallabajee were all remembered for the struggles the sugar industry has faced over the years.
Joseph noted that sugar is the reason the majority of Guyanese are on these shores, as he called on trade unionists to work together.
Lewis told those gathered that “it is time we sit down and talk” — words he directed to the Government — on matters of importance to the labour force.
In paying tribute to the martyrs, Narine said: “we should not downplay workers’ struggle for betterment.”
Earlier, the Prime Minister and guests at the event laid wreaths at the Enmore Martyrs Monument in memory of the slain sugar workers.
The ceremony concluded with a call for unity and the Prime Minister joined union heads as they sang lustily the words of the “Internationale.”