— over 6,500 tonnes of packaged sugar sold in three months
— Guyana regains Antigua, Holland markets; Germany on the cards

AFTER years of being hamstrung by growing financial constraints and imprudent management, Guyana’s ailing sugar industry has restarted its ascension, which is being stimulated mainly by the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) renewed focus on value-added production and a revised sales mix.
Cognisant of the fact that a diversion from the traditional bulk production of sugar is needed if the ailing industry is to recover and regain its vitality and position as a contributor to economic growth, the government had initiated plans to ensure that by 2025, 61 per cent of industry sales come from value-added products.
In keeping with this new mandate and direction, GuySuCo has taken steps to increase the production of packaged sugar, with some 6,542 tonnes being sold within the past three months alone. “Usually, January is soft, so to be able to have achieved such an advanced sale of sugar at a higher value level was phenomenal,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Sugar Corporation, Sasenarine Singh, said during an interview at the corporation’s LBI headquarters, on Tuesday. It was reported recently that instead of being a liability to the National Treasury, the sugar industry will soon be able to “stand on its own” through the implementation of innovative mechanisms. Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, was reported as saying: “In 2020, some 29 per cent of the industry’s sales were from the higher value packaged sugar. In 2021, we anticipate this will grow to some 39 per cent.”

The overarching plan, however, is to ensure that a minimum of 61 per cent of the sales from the industry are generated from the value-added, packaged sugar line in four years. “GuySuCo is changing its sales mix in compliance with the mandate of the Government of Guyana, which is, we have to sweat these assets and leverage greater value, and that is what we have been doing… our aim is to get back into heavy-duty packaged sugar manufacturing,” Singh related during the interview on Tuesday.
An investment without tangible returns is imprudent in any case, but the litmus test to prove that packaged sugar is viable was already done.
According to Singh, the mathematics and the business model make sense, and this was proven in 2011 when the corporation was exporting 30,000 tonnes of packaged sugar to the Caribbean alone. “Last year, we exported 10,000 tonnes to the Caribbean, but we are preparing ourselves to get back to where we can export 30,000 tonnes to the Caribbean,” the CEO said.
Singh related that the sale of over 6,500 tonnes of packaged sugar is just the tip of the iceberg, as greater advancement is expected, on this front, within the next three months.

EXPECTING GREATER THINGS
In relaying his optimism for the industry, the CEO said: “We are expecting greater things over the next three months… the great news remains that we have made our first sale in years to Antigua… it has been more than five years since we sold to Antigua, and we have done that in the first quarter.
“We have also now sold sugar for direct consumption for the first time in years to Holland and I am told that the [the buyer] is preparing to buy a container to go to Germany because of the feedback they have gotten on the quality of Demerara Gold [the industry’s premier brand of packaged sugar].”
Based on customer-review, Guyana’s sugar is of such a high standard that it is treated as a niche product, a position which augurs well for the industry, since high-value niche products can gather higher prices.

“We are moving up the value chain… we have an inventory of the highest value product, which is packaged sugar, and we are trying to de-emphasise our accumulation of raw bulk sugar which is sold for US$300-US350 per tonne, while we are selling packaged sugar at double that price,” Singh reasoned.
The corporation’s intention is to reduce sales on the bulk market by 33 per cent by 2026, and optimise its new sales mix by expanding the market for packaged sugar.
Already, in keeping with its shift, the corporation has placed an inventory of packaged sugar at each operating estate. The benefit of this shift was highlighted on Monday, when the corporation was called upon to produce 50 tonnes of packaged sugar for shipment to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where a volcanic eruption has severely affected citizens of the island-nation.

The St. Vincent and the Grenadines market, on a regular day, has been favourable for Guyana’s sugar.
In addition to this market, Guyana is also selling to Grenada, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, among other countries.
As it is now, Guyana is tapping only a fraction of the Trinidad and Tobago market, by selling 5,000 tonnes of sugar, when the country’s estimated intake is 35,000 tonnes.

HUGE POTENTIAL
“That market has huge potential to penetrate… the Jamaican market is not open as of now, but they will open it shortly because they have been shutting mills… they have a market of about 40,000 tonnes of sugar, packaged and bagged,” Singh related, noting that Guyana is also in talks with stakeholders from Barbados.
Considering the corporation’s position and the opportunities that exist, there is only one way to go from here, and that is up.
Minister Mustapha, in a past report, had said: ‘“To realise this potential, significant investments have been planned to expand the Blairmont packaging plant, quadrupling its current capacity. Moreover, we will be re-tooling the Enmore Packaging Plant, to support the paradigm shift to packaged sugar.”
As a result of those strategic actions, the sugar industry will be less dependent on the National Treasury.

In 2020, the corporation was allocated a sum of $7 billion. A sum of $3 billion was used to recapitalise the shuttered Rose Hall, Skeldon, and Enmore Sugar Estates, while the remaining $4 billion was allocated to support rehabilitation works at the Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion Sugar Estates.
A further $2 billion has been set aside in Budget 2021 for capital works to be carried out at the various sugar estates across the country. Those investments are expected to pave the way for the execution of a strategic plan developed by the board and management of GuySuCo.
“In 2021, the plan is to expand and further develop feasibility studies which support GuySuCo’s value-added potentials including, but not limited to, ethanol and agro-energy,” Minister Mustapha had said. The corporation has since set a target to produce approximately 97,420 metric tonnes of sugar by year-end and breathe new life into the country’s sugar industry.