…new chairman eyes cogeneration, higher yields

NEWLY appointed Chairman of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), John Dow said it would be an uphill task to bring the sugar corporation back to affordability but he is up for the challenge.

On Monday, Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced that Cabinet, last Tuesday, approved the Board of Directors of the Guyana Sugar Corporation based on a submission by Agriculture Minister, Noel Holder. Heading the list is Dow – the Chairman. It also includes: John Browman, Richard Cumberbatch, Paul Cheong, Fitz McLean, Vishnu Panday, Ramesh Persaud, Nowrang Persaud, Roy Hanoman and Claude Housty along with ex-officio member, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (ag) Harold Davis Jr.

Dow now sits at the helm of the corporation with experience in the sugar industry spanning more than four decades, having worked in Guyana, Zambia, Jamaica, and Barbados. Hours after the announcement was made by the State Minister, Dow, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, expressed the hope of having the industry return to a state of profitability under his watch, but made it clear that it is no easy task given GuySuCo’s current state of affairs and the price of sugar on the world market. “As you know, the sugar industry, because of the low price of raw sugar worldwide, is now suffering,” he said.
The challenges in the industry are not limited to Guyana, Dow said while noting that Jamaica, Belize, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago have experienced, and in some cases, continue to experience their fair share of challenges. “As you may know, Trinidad had to shut down their industry, Antigua went out of sugar many years ago…In the Caribbean really, it is only Guyana, Belize, Jamaica, Barbados that are still producing sugar, and I think that you will find that only Belize, the actual production has improved, but all the others, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana…for example Barbados had three factories up to mid-2002, they now only have one, and that is the situation, it is very challenging,” he explained to this newspaper.

The GuySuCo Chairman expressed the hope that with increased production of value added products, the sugar corporation would be able to revive itself. “Well I don’t know if we could ever attain profitability in the near future, but certainly, that it is the sort of thing we would be looking at, what can be done to improve the local sugar industry, in the sense of getting it to a point where, hopefully, it can be self-sufficient or only need minimum subsidies,” Dow said.

He emphasised that a lot depends on the price of sugar over the next two years, and the corporation’s ability to expand in other areas such as the production of plantation white sugar and cogeneration, while improving on its current products. Sale of plantation white sugar to the local, CARICOM, and USA markets could see the corporation earning more and simultaneously displacing the importation of refined sugar regionally.

Maximise output
Dow noted too, that based on his analysis, the corporation needs to maximise its output. “We need to improve our yield in the fields – that is very important. Right now our yields are not to the level tonnes cane per hectare, it is not up to the level we would like it to be,” he noted.

Alluding to the findings and recommendations of the 2015 CoI into GuySuCo, Dow, while noting that the report is still relevant, said much work needs to be done to improve the present infrastructure. “GuySuCo has a lot of equipment that should have been replaced over the years, [they] haven’t had the opportunity to be replaced because of low capital,” he pointed out.

The GuySuCo CEO (ag), in April, told the Guyana Chronicle that if the sugar industry is to be competitive, it must be modernised, and the upgrading of the factories is critical to the process. Like, Dow, he had noted that the factories are old, and are in dire need of repairs.
Dow recalled that it was in 1975 when he began working with GuySuCo. By 1978, he earned the position of Factory Manager at Skeldon Estate – a post he held up until 1980. In 1981, he was transferred to GuySuCo’s head office in Georgetown. From 1983 to 1987, Dow worked at the Tate and Lyle Sugar Company in Zambia before moving to Jamaica where he worked under the same company from 1987 to 1991.

In 1997, he returned to GuySuCo as Projects Director up until 2002. From 2002 to 2013, he worked at the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC). He was among the Commissioners who formed part of the Commission of Inquiry into GuySuCo, and most recently severed as Projects Engineer and Consultant at GuySuCo (February, 2016 – February, 2018). His appointment as Board Chairman comes after months of consideration at the level of Cabinet.