– unless Skeldon factory fixed – President Jagdeo
…promises to deal with it himself
“IT’S dead, it’s as simple as that,” said President Bharrat Jagdeo, describing what would become of the sugar industry should the new Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Skeldon factory not work the way it was designed to.
President Jagdeo was speaking in Queenstown, Corriverton yesterday at the commissioning of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI’s) ultra-modern, $1.4B water treatment plant in Berbice.
With some US$200 million expended on the new Skeldon Sugar factory – meant to bring viability to the sugar industry in the wake of recent challenges, including lower prices and bad weather – all of Guyana’s hopes for the industry are pinned on the success of the factory.
“Unfortunately, it is not delivering the results that we expected it to. They have too many mistakes going on there and I intend to fix it…I intend to fix it. It has to change. We cannot [make] that sort of investment to have a few people mess it up. So, even if it means personally I have to get involved, I will get involve to ensure that it is fixed, that it’s delivering the kind of results that it should deliver, so that we could safeguard the sugar industry,” said a visibly livid President.
He said that, because of the 36 percent cut in the European Union (EU) price for sugar, the full measure of which was felt from last year, if the Skeldon factory does not work well, the sugar industry in Guyana is dead.
Jagdeo said it had been hoped that the bulk of sugar would be produced in the Berbice area at a lower cost so that the average cost would allow us to break even at least on the world market level. “If this doesn’t get fixed, we’re in serious trouble and we made a commitment…we have built it. Most countries exited sugar. Jamaica now has some issues with sugar, Barbados went out of sugar, St. Kitts went out of sugar, Trinidad went out of sugar…they simply didn’t have the commitment,” he said.
The President told the gathering that if sugar is not growing in the Corentyne, “this place would be a ghost town.”
He said sugar not only feeds the sugar workers but it feeds the shopkeepers and everyone else. “It is the largest economic activity of this area and if you take this income out, this place becomes very, very vulnerable…and I am not going to let that happen because of a few people,” Jagdeo said. “So whatever it takes, we are going to make it work,” he declared.
Over the past months, there have been various instances of glitches in the operation of the factory, despite assurances from Guysuco’s management that the problems would have been ironed out in time for the commencement of the second crop. In addition to the heavy investment in the Skeldon factory, Government has also invested heavily in a packaging plant at the Enmore factory, aimed at further cementing the viability of the sector to withstand the recent shocks.