Dear Editor,
I READ with much hilarity, a news item on GuySuCo that appeared in Kaieteur News, January 26, 2017 edition, “GuySuCo to meet today on production targets as first crop starts.”In essence, the company announced that it will deliberate in an executive meeting on the projected production for 2017 and production start-up date. One of its spokespersons even stated that the proposed date is the “latter part of February.”
Editor, to understand GuySuCo’s gymnastics, let’s go back to Kaieteur News, December 30, 2016, a news item captioned “From 2000 – 2016…GuySuCo lost over 1.1 million man-days due to strikes – Holder.” In this December 2016 release, the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, explained to the nation, apart from other things, that “153,300 tonnes of canes would be carried over in 2017, which, he said, is equivalent to some 11,300 tonnes of sugar.” “Carried over” means, 153,00 tonnes of canes were left in the cane fields at the end of 2016, which will be harvested in the 2017 season. GuySuCo could not harvest it because of many excuses which it gave the Government.
We are now in 2017 and this amount of “carried over” canes can supply all six GuySuCo factories (Wales now closed) for 1 1/2 weeks. Knowing this, GuySuCo should be making every possible effort to start factories as early as possible, since this batch of “carried over” canes have essentially gone past their harvesting age in November/December 2016. As these canes age further, the quality worsens and a high percentage of sugar is lost. From all indications, GuySuCo will deliberately delay the start of operations to the end of February, 2017 and this boggles the mind, because 153,300 tonnes of canes are being left in fields to become fibre. To further compound an already bad situation, a delayed start pushes the operating timeframe into the May-June rainy season,which will certainly affect operations, assuming that canes are there. If the IMC and its advisors delay start-up, it confirms that they are not supportive of a GuySuCo survival plan and may be deceiving the Government in a clever way. A late start could also be because of bad management of factory repairs, or too little canes to harvest in the first crop of 2017, again due to bad management. The nation eagerly awaits the announcement of GuySuCo’s 2017 sugar projection. With the level of incompetence at the helm — especially for the last 18 months — a depressing projection is anticipated and Government will have to face the nation again to defend the IMC’s ineptitude in 2017.
Yours truly,
Sookram Persaud