..President Granger tells Albion Estate workers
…guarantees employees livelihoods
…commits to engaging sugar unions to move industry forward

GUYANA’S sugar industry is being restructured so that it can be revived and President David Granger, on Friday morning, assured workers at the Albion Sugar Estate in Berbice that the sector is going to recover from the difficulties it is facing.
The President also made a commitment to engage with the unions representing sugar workers in order to chart a course forward for the industry’s development.
The President was accompanied by Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, and Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuC0), Dr. Harold Davis Jr.

According to a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency, the Head of State committed to ensuring that a stronger, smarter, sustainable and more profitable sugar industry is built and workers’ jobs are safeguarded.
The President also committed to ensuring that the $30 billion syndicated bond that has been secured by the Special Projects Unit (SPU) of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), is transferred to GuySuCo within a short space of time so that urgent needs can be met.

Speaking at the Estate’s Training Centre in Albion, as well as to workers in the Estate’s factory, President Granger explained that his visit to the location was aimed at understanding the challenges facing the estate so that appropriate decisions could be made at the policy level.

“Our sugar industry is going to recover from the difficulties it is facing. This sugar industry is not on the point of death…I am not here to bury the sugar industry. I am here to find out what your problems are. I have come to fix things. We are in the process of restructuring this industry to respond to changes, which have taken place both externally and internally. It is being restructured so that it can be revived; so that we can make this industry not just sustainable but profitable. We are not here to merely survive; we are here to thrive! We are here to guarantee employees’ livelihoods. We are here to guarantee sugar’s position in the national economy. We are here to safeguard the rural economy,” he said, to a loud applause.

Despite criticisms, since 2015 the APNU+AFC administration has been doing it utmost to ensure the industry thrives. Following the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the industry, the President reminded the gathering, on Friday, that a task force was established to develop recommendations on its restructuring after which, a State Paper on the ‘Future of the Sugar Industry’, was presented to the National Assembly.
He said that a Corporate Restructuring Plan (CRP) was initiated following these processes and apart of the plan is to produce 147,000 metric tonnes of sugar in the shortest possible time.
He said consolidation of the Berbice and West Demerara plantations is a part of the plan. “These three plantations will bear the burden of sugar production and government will give those sugar plantations whatever it can afford and needs to produce that 147,000,” he said adding that, “We are in the business of sugar and we will produce sugar. We will not produce retrenched workers and obsolete factories.”
Unfortunately, the President said that consolidation of the Albion and Rose Hall plantations and the Uitvlugt and Wales plantations resulted in the separation of several thousand workers from the industry. However, he said while the government regrets the outcome, he added that it is not the first time that hard choices have had to be made to ensure the sustainability of the industry.

As he revisited historical moves in the industry, he said that the consolidation of the estates did not begin in 2015 and he reminded the workers that the East Demerara plantations – Diamond, Enmore and La Bonne Intention – were consolidated in 1998 and the administrative office for the merged estates was centralised at La Bonne Intention. “The Enmore administrative office and field workshop were closed in the same year, 1998. I didn’t do that,” he asserted.
The Head of State referenced the closure of the Diamond and La Bonne Intention (LBI) Estates and the relocation of workers. The corporation employed over 20,000 workers in 1992 and by 2015 there were 15,000.

“So, you see that not only plantations were being consolidated, but the workforce was shrinking. This meant that 5000 were taken off the payroll, either by natural attrition or severance, between 1992 and 2015,” he said. He said government is faced with a situation in the industry where the only thing that is constant is change and similarly, he noted that sugar production has not been static.
“We were producing an average of 264,963 MT [metric tonnes] annually in the decade 1996-2005, but declined by 14 per cent to an average of 208,718 MT in the following decade. The production cost has been difficult to bear,” the President said.
He noted that the figure once was US$ 0.86 per kg in 2014 while the world market price was US$ 0.31 per kg. That meant that for every kilogram, it was losing US$0.55. “That is the reality of sugar production and we cannot ignore that reality,” he said.

President Granger believes that the CRP is at the heart of the revitalisation of the sugar industry and the Corporation projects that, with effective agricultural management and through capital investments, it can lower production costs to about US$0.40 per kg, making the industry more viable and profitable. Additionally, the corporation’s short-term plans involve the rehabilitation of field infrastructure; the modernisation of production including cost-effective mechanisation; the retooling of factories including energy-efficient equipment and technologies; and increasing milling and other processing capacities.
Speaking directly about the Albion Estate , the President said that he believes it is the hub of the modernisation programme and according to him, government believes that under the plan and with improvements in marketing of sugar, better infusion of capital and investment, the industry can produce some of the best sugar in the Caribbean.
“This is what our ancestors bequeathed to us and I will not bequeath a museum to the children. I will bequeath to them a living thing called Albion Plantation,” he said.
He told the workers that he was there to ensure the CRP works, “to restructure the industry and to return it to sustainability and profitability. I have come here with a message of hope for the whole of Guyana, the future is bright and you are the future. This industry will thrive and will offer employment to those who seek employment. Albion will survive and the sugar industry will survive.”

During his address, the President said that while it is the job of the Special Purpose Unit to divest the Corporation’s uncultivated estates and unproductive assets, the resources garnered from this process will be used to finance the industry’s restructuring in part.

“We were always interested in the success of GuySuCo and felt that this was the financially prudent course to pursue. I am here to let you know that government is going to put the relationship between NICIL and the Corporation on a firm footing. The government asked for a valuation of the corporation’s assets. NICIL went ahead and received a G$30.0B syndicated bond, to provide financing for the corporation. That money is coming to GuySuCo. This is in pursuit of a plan. We feel that GuySuCo has a credible corporate plan and we must all work together to achieve a good outcome. Everybody wins if GuySuCo wins. We are going to ensure that that money comes in a timely manner and in sufficient amounts,” he said.

President Granger also told the workers and their managers that he is prepared at any time, to engage with their unions as he has done in the past to ensure that they understand where the sugar industry is headed.

Estate Manager, Threbhowan Shivprasad, said that the Albion/Port Mourant Estate, with support from central government can see significant improvements and a turnaround by 2023. He also noted that there are numerous vacancies on the Estate, which the company is hoping to fill at the shortest possible time with persons from the Corentyne.

Shivprasad, like the other staff, expressed gratitude to the Head of State for visiting and listening to staff. He said today’s visit to the estate represented the first time a Head of State has done so in that location.

The President also visited the Albion Primary School where he interacted with the pupils and teachers.