GuySuCo is here to stay
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, speaks with private cane farmers at the Skeldon Training Centre
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, speaks with private cane farmers at the Skeldon Training Centre

— Minister Mustapha assures Skeldon private cane farmers

By Nafeeza Yahya-Sakur

AGRICULTURE Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, has assured private cane farmers at Skeldon that GuySuCo is here to stay and the operations at the factory would be more reliable than before, during a meeting with them at the Skeldon Training Centre, East Berbice, Corentyne, on Saturday.

On the recommendation of the European Union, one third of the cane at the Skeldon factory is expected to be supplied by private farmers from the Upper Corentyne, and the meeting between the farmers and the minister sought to address any issues or concerns ahead of the re-opening of the factory.

Subsequent to the meeting, a six-member committee was formed with three representatives each from the private cane farmers and GuySuCo to record and follow up on concerns raised by the farmers with the Agriculture Minister and team. The committee will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GuySuCo, Sasenarine Singh.

The farmers, many of whom are now being forced to service loans that they took to invest into the private plantation, without any return on their investments, have expressed some reluctance to return to cane cultivation after they were left “high and dry” by the previous administration.

The factory was closed in 2017. The farmers wanted assurance that there would not be a repeat before committing to re-planting sugar cane and have GuySuCo honour the terms of the agreement that was made.

According to the farmers, a tri-partite agreement was made between the farmers, the bank and GuySuCo when the factory opened. The terms of the agreement stated that GuySuCo essentially guaranteed all of the loans and agreed to take over the farms and repay the bank in the event that the farmers defaulted on their loans.

It was projected that the loans would have been repaid within three years but this never
materialised since the factory was plagued with many issues. This put a financial strain on the farmers, rendering many of them bankrupt after they would have invested millions of their personal finances into the farms.

SALT TO WOUNDS

When the factory was closed by the APNU+AFC Government in December, 2017, farmers still had canes ready for harvesting. To add salt to the wounds of the farmers, GuySuCo refused to honour the terms of the tri-partite agreement, leaving the farmers abandoned with the banks threatening to take them to court and move against their personal property.

This according to the farmers would take them out of the cane business and cripple their other existing businesses since they cannot repay the loans, given the sizes and interest accrued. The
farmers are asking that GuySuCo honour the terms of the agreements, in addition to them being more involved in the decision-making process of the industry.

“We need a guarantee that the factory would not be running for a few years then shut down like what happened the last time. We were left high and dry by the previous Government with the banks on our backs for loans and debts that we inherited due to no fault of ours and we need assistance in this regard if we are to go back into cane plantation. GuySuCo or the Government needs to help us out on this,” one cane farmer explained to Minister Mustapha.

Private cane farmer, David Subnauth makes a point at the meeting on Saturday

In response, the Agriculture Minister said the Government remains committed to seeing the successful re-opening and operation of the estates as promised in the party’s manifesto. He noted that GuySuCo is more than just sugar and the socio-economic role the industry plays is far too important for the Government to allow the industry to fail.

“The aim of this Government is to reach a break-even point then we start to talk about profitability but we have to look at the social aspect GuySuCo has been playing over the years and, if we wait to be perfect, the people of Guyana will suffer and this Government will not
allow people to suffer,” he said.

He continued: “These issues that you were facing before like not having a representative to see your cane weighed or being present when samples are taken, all those things will change; you will have a better say in the management of GuySuCo. That is why I’m starting out today to set up this joint committee with the cane farmers and GuySuCo so that we can trash out all the issues before we go into cultivation.”

COMMITMENTS

In the interim, the minister stated that while he cannot provide financial assistance to the farmers at this time, he can commit to ensuring immediate drainage and irrigation works commence and look towards offering concessions to farmers as well as make good on a commitment to remove the corporate tax on the loans as promised previously.

“Yes, we can give help but we cannot give cash to every farmer. We have to look at the practicality of things that can benefit all the farmers… what we can do is have GuySuCo do the D&I works that can benefit all the farmers, the canals and the dams and things like that,
then later on we can look at your tillage of lands and things like that, but as it stands now I can make that commitment to you this morning that we can start the D & I aspect immediately. Also we can look at the concession…. We have removed the input on equipment and agriculture so is less monies being spent by farmers and we could also look at other incentives that we can extend,” the minister said.

Also present at the meeting were GuySuCo CEO, Sasenarine Singh; Skeldon Estate Manager, Vishnu Pandey and heads of the various departments of the Skeldon Estate and Ministry of Agriculture.

The private cane farmers provided employment for approximately 500 persons previously and many expressed optimism to the minister and team that the Skeldon Estate can be profitable.

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