– Now 264,063 from 280,000 tonnes
The Guyana Sugar Corporation has revised its 2010 production target from 280,000 to 264,063 tonnes as the company grapples with the reality of early months of dryness and a still fragile industrial relations climate. According to production figures garnered by this newspaper, Guysuco’s first crop production for the year pales in comparison to last year’s. But the company is expecting a decent second crop for 2010 based on the intense land preparation that took place late last year and into this year. Some of the land preparation work was outsourced in preparation for the mechanized harvesting process to come on stream at many of the estates where labour is a challenge.
Just two months ago, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Rajaindra Singh expressed confidence in the corporation’s achieving the published target of 280,000 tonnes. He said that the dry season at the beginning and early months of the year was responsible for the less than spectacular first crop. While the second crop is always larger than the first, this year’s first crop of 81,862 tonnes is not encouraging, especially when the first crop last year was 83,356 and the total production just 233,739 tonnes.
The target for the first crop was set at 91,675 tonnes, but the corporation only achieved 81,862 tonnes. Further, the corporation in 2009 achieved a first crop of 83,289 tonnes. The target for the second crop – to commence around the end of July – is 190,000 tonnes.
He was adamant that field management work that began last year will lead to a large second crop. Singh had noted that a number of interventions will see the realisation of the target of 180,000, since in addition to the field preparation, there was a lot of capacity built in various areas of operation.
The Deputy CEO Singh had said that on the industrial relations front, the corporation had less strikes in the first months of 2010. He said Guysuco was working very closely with the union to ensure that efficiency at all levels is maintained and spoke also of training of staff to ensure maximum levels of efficiency. He also spoke of training of the company’s workers at all levels.
Guysuco said that by the second half of 2011, the capacity of the company to supply the cane required to run the new Skeldon factory at its optimum level will be reached. Once this capacity is reached, the factory can produce some 300 tonnes of sugar per hour. Presently the production is between 250 and 280 tonnes per hours at Skeldon.
Tomorrow Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and a team of officials and stakeholders will be visiting the Skeldon factory to inspect the operations there and to meet with private cane farmers to discuss the way forward for the industry.