– now claims GuySuCo will be revitalised

TWO days after one of its members publicly dismissed the future of Guyana’s sugar industry, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Tuesday issued a statement seeking to clarify what it described as its “re-emphasised” position on Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), vowing instead to revitalise the sector if elected to government.

The party’s reaction comes on the heels of controversial remarks made by APNU member Leon Saul during the coalition’s campaign launch on Sunday, where he declared, “Sugar done, hemp and cannabis in… hemp and cannabis is in when the oil done. Hemp and cannabis oil will give us more than fossil fuel oil.”
However, in an apparent effort to contain the fallout, the party on Tuesday distanced itself from Saul’s comments, insisting that it has no plans to close down the GuySuCo or abandon sugar altogether.

“Instead, as the next government, the APNU coalition will focus its effort on revitalising and reshaping the sugar industry,” the party stated, adding that its presidential candidate Aubrey Norton has identified diversification and new investment as critical pillars of that plan.

However, this latest pronouncement stands in contrast to statements Norton himself made just last month, when he proposed transforming GuySuCo into a construction giant.
Speaking at a June press conference, Norton said, “GuySuCo can become one of the largest builders of homes and communities in Guyana,” suggesting that the corporation’s vast landholdings and resources could be redirected toward the booming construction sector.

At the time, Norton also touted the potential for diversification through ethanol production, livestock feed, bagasse, and electricity generation using sugarcane by-products.
But that vision of GuySuCo as a multi-industry enterprise has done little to ease public scepticism—particularly among sugar workers and their families, who bore the brunt of APNU+AFC’s previous policy choices.

The coalition’s 2017 decision to close the Rose Hall, Skeldon, Enmore, and Wales estates left thousands of sugar workers jobless, sparking widespread criticism, protest action, and long-term economic hardship in the affected communities.

An APNU+AFC government-commissioned Commission of Inquiry had explicitly warned against further estate closures, calling instead for sustained financial support for the sector.
The findings specifically warned against further estate closures “at this time”. Instead, it urged the State to maintain short-term financial support for the corporation while considering long-term divestment strategies.

President Irfaan Ali recently unveiled a sweeping diversification plan that stands in stark contrast to the opposition’s controversial past and present proposals for the sugar industry.
Speaking during an interview on June 23, 2025, President Ali described the State-owned GuySuCo as a “crippled sector” when his government took office in 2020. His administration, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), has since poured more than $40 billion into reviving what he called a “national asset”.

“We had to recreate that infrastructure, rebuild drainage and irrigation systems, clear fields that became forests… That was basically what it was, and then reinvest in capital goods,” President Ali had said.

The president now plans to take the industry into a second phase of modernisation and diversification over the next five years.
With a focus on technological innovation and new opportunities for workers, Ali aims to position GuySuCo not just as a sugar producer, but as a modern economic engine for the country.

“We are now looking at the entire ecosystem of GuySuCo; how it can support national development, how it can be part of our economic expansion,” he said, adding, “We must have technology, we must have modernisation, we must have more precision type of farming to have greater yield, greater production.”