GUYSUCO in recent years has been experiencing falling production

and from all appearances it is finding it extremely challenging to get back on track to increase production once gain.
 Already, the first crop for this year has begun on a pessimistic note as Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy has opined that it is very unlikely that the industry will meet its 90,000 tonnes target.
He disclosed that so far, approximately 10,000 tonnes have been produced.
But, although he cited unsuitable weather conditions and a shortage of labour as the main reasons for the lower production by GUYSUCO, he emphasised that the government is making significant investments to alleviate the problems.
$500M have already been invested in further mechanisation and GuySuCo is now in the process of procuring some additional equipment.
“I am hoping that an investment of $500M on procuring equipment, such as excavators, tractors and so on will help them to accelerate the mechanisation process which will help with the labour situation,” Ramsammy said.
The minister said, more specifically, the investment is going towards accelerating the process of field transformation, which, according to him, means transforming the fields that are now laid out for manual to more mechanised operations.
 While it is true that in the long term mechanising of harvesting operations is inevitable and would be the solution to the labour problem, this would take quite a while and therefore in the meantime GUYSUCO needs to find a solution in the current situation.
 The current weather pattern is very favourable to production and therefore GUYSUCO must spare no effort to ensure that in the coming weeks production reaches optimum levels so that even if the target for the crop is not met, at least the shortfall should be minimal.
 A shortfall in this first crop obviously would mean a greater pressure on the second crop to reach the annual target which is crucial as the industry for several years now has been failing to reach its annual targets.
 What is at stake here is not the industry by itself,but rather its failure will have severe national adverse consequences because it still remains our largest industry and over 25,000 people depend on it directly or indirectly for their livelihoods.
 Therefore the turnaround of the industry is not an option but rather an imperative and this has been acknowledged by the Agriculture Minister.
“Our industry and us need to work together to make sure that it serves not only those who work in the industry, but that it serves our country, it’s our country’s future,” he remarked.
To our advantage only Belize is the other major sugar producer within CARICOM and therefore we do not have much competition for markets; and based on forecasts by experts, there is a great likelihood of an increased demand for sugar because of ethanol production by some of the major sugar-producing countries.
The most optimistic price projections are those of Commerzbank (+10% over the year), as Commerzbank assumes that ‘speculative financial investors have already reacted to the outlook of plentiful supply’. They also reflect an anticipated, increased use of sugar for ethanol production in Brazil.
The sugar/ethanol mix is seen as the big question in 2013–14. Lower global sugar prices reduce the incentive of Brazilian millers to maximise sugar production, while ‘robust export flows of ethanol to the U.S.’ and an expected increase in Brazilian ethanol blending requirements are likely to promote increased use of Brazilian sugar cane in ethanol production. This will be helped by recent price trends. On 10 December 2012, New York Sugar Futures ‘slipped below the anhydrous ethanol equivalent price’.
 So the markets are there to be exploited, but if we do not up production with urgency we may not be able to capitalise on them