HARVESTING of sugar at the Albion and Blairmont sugar estates will commence on March 1, 2019.

Despite challenges and setbacks, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) will be moving ahead with its operations for this year.

GuySuCo Public Relations Officer Audreyanna Thomas, said harvesting will commence at the two estates on March 1 but, actual grinding of sugar will start on March 2, 2019.
The corporation is yet to decide on a commencement date for the Uitvlugt Estate but, when it starts, grinding will last for seven weeks, while Blairmont will take six weeks and grinding at Albion will take nine weeks.

It was reported that the production target for 2019 is 113,262 tonnes and approximately 131,000 tonnes of sugar in 2020 and 141,431 tonnes by 2021.

In order to achieve that goal, Thomas said GuySuCo will be boosting its capacity by hiring 150 cane harvesters, three electricians, two fitter machinists, one diesel mechanic and one staff nurse for Blairmont. Over at Albion, the corporation will also be hiring cane harvesters, shovel-men, rat hunters and weeders.

Last year, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder had said that in order for the projections to be achieved, capital investments of over $17 billion will be made in the next three years; these woud be done in a timely manner to ensure the security of production and to maximise the quality of the end production.

GuySuCo Chairman John Dow had said it would be an uphill task to bring the sugar corporation back to profitability, but he is up for the challenge.
Dow, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle last year, had expressed hope of having the industry return to a state of profitability under his watch. He however had also 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; he noted 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 in 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.