Government has placed emphasis on recovery of the sugar industry even as it prepares to deal with a loss of $9 billion in revenue from October 1 and the new board has already started to make positive changes, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud (sixth from left, standing) and some members of GuySuCo’s board pose with the champion workers.
At Guysuco’s Regional Honour’s Roll function held at the Rosignol Secondary School, Persaud told those gathered that it is critical for the Guyana sugar Corpora-tion (GuySuCo) to increase production and reduce cost.
He said that in terms of the macro-economic framework, the role of sugar is very critical in building a new economy, adding that for that reason government took the decision to invest in the Skeldon factory.
He said that despite the hardship faced, government did not shut down the industry as other countries such as Trinidad did as thousands of people depend on it.
Persaud also stated that “every single one of the opposition, without exception, criticized government’s decision to remain in sugar… not a single one of them offered their support.”
He told those gathered that “we must not be misled by those elements because they want to see the sugar industry fail.”
He said confidently that with all the intervention that government is making “the industry would continue on the path of recovery and in years to come it would be a very profitable entity.”
Government needs to adjust to the $9 billion loss in revenue per annum from October 1 which resulted from the way the Europeans handled the sugar protocol and the introduction of the price cut.
He said that for the first time Guysuco’s board is headed by a “labour leader” – Dr Nanda Gopaul – who has brought a variety of skills and experience and has an interest in the working class and in ensuring that the industry is viable.
He said the board was tasked with coming up with a blueprint to success on how it can make the sugar industry recover. The Booker Tate Management contract, he said was subsequently brought to an end after government felt that “there were certain weaknesses that had to be corrected.”
He said too that “the time has come for the industry to be run and managed by Guyanese, capable Guyanese and that is not to say that we still do not require external support.”
The minister said that government also took another step of organizing the management structure with the aim of making it much more efficient and modern to deal with the various challenges.
He pointed out that government has to make adjustments based on the challenges that the industry is confronted with and according to him “we could not have brought a management arrangement that belonged to the 20th century and expect it to deliver in the 21th century”.
He said too that a lot of emphasis had to be placed on growing cane and to “improve the efficiency of Guysuco because Guysuco had a reputation of being an inefficient organization”.
A lot of interventions had to be made, he said, to make industry viable.
Government also had to deal with the neglect taking place primarily in the agricultural side of the operation and a lot of emphasis had to be placed on growing more cane.
Alcohol
The minister said that the abuse of alcohol is causing the workers and their families’ well-being as well as that of the industry to be affected. He ordered that the facilities at the estate be “alcohol-free zones” and said that if workers need to purchase alcohol they must do so elsewhere.
According to the new Chief Executive, Errol Hanoman, “For too long, alcohol has been one of the main problems confronting many of our people and as a result this industry.”
He said that alcohol affects the workers’ performance on the job, their temperament and attendance. Due to that alcohol awareness programmes are being conducted and he implored the workers to “pay heed” and to “give ourselves and our families a chance for a better life in the future.”
He noted that even though performance of the corporation has been below expectation, there were employees who worked extremely hard and gave of their best.
Bad year
He pointed out that 2008 was a bad year and that only 226,267 tonnes of cane were produced; the lowest since 1990 when there was a production of 129,920 tonnes.
He said the drop was due to “steep increases in the prices of our key inputs such as fuel, fertilizers and freight” as well as “annual rainfall for 2008 was the highest in 53 years”.
On a positive note, he said during last year an agreement was signed for the period 2008 to 2015 and a minimum of 185,000 tonnes will be shipped to the EU each year. “During the year we shipped 186,302 tonnes to the EU.”
He also said that the commissioning trials for the new Skeldon factory commenced, power exported to the national grid continued with an average export of 4.5 MWH. In June, the National Cane Farming Committee was resuscitated, so that the cane farming component could once again be “given the serious attention it deserves.”
During last year too, the Blairmont factory and GuySuCo’s Marketing Department were re-certified as being ISO 9000:2001 compliant.
The industry also made “excellent progress in the area of variety research and development with eight new varieties has been released to estates for pre-commercial evaluation (higher sucrose content, more fibre for cogeneration).”
He said 2002, 2003 and 2004 saw production of 331,000, 302,000 and 325,000 tonnes respectively, emphasizing that after the intense rainfall in January 2005 the industry was unable to achieve tillage and replanting programmes primarily because of the wet conditions.
He said over 35% of the cultivation of cane-fields have been uneconomical to harvest because of poor cane yields occasioned by the inability to achieve the replanting; “it costs us more to harvest the cane compared with the revenue we earn from the sugar…”
He said that several initiatives are being implemented to make the industry more viable, such as accelerated rehabilitation of the cultivation using contractors from both within Guyana and abroad.
He noted that work that was done in 110 days would have to be done in 60 days and the weather must not be an excuse. He said they also aimed to rehabilitate the cultivation in two years rather than five years.
Persaud said he hopes that by December 2011 the Skeldon land development would have the requisite 1.2 million tonnes of cane in the ground. It is also expected that by March 2010, the end of the defects notification period, most of the defects identified as the new factory is operated should be rectified.
Also present at the function were Region Six Chairman Harrinarine Baldeo and Dr Nanda Gopaul who delivered the charge to the champion workers.
Whot about the recent loss of funds from the EU which was as a result of late submission of documents – do we have incompetent people in places where they should not be???
…do we have incomp…… of course we do ,, de ministah fuh agriculcha leadin de pack !
All sugar derived products are now viewed in the same light as being injurious to humans. Just as oil has a bad reputation as the fuel for transportation, sugar products are seen as bad for the general health of the population. If a significant number of employees in this industry had been P.N.C. supporters the life support would have been removed a long time ago. Stop making political decisions when the problem is economic. Sugar in the developed world is more and more being seen as a toxic product. Search for alternative exports.
The good minister is again shooting himself in the foot by his own statements.First he lambasts T&T for abandoning their sugar industry then he condemns all of the opposition for their non support as if the nay sayers were all wrong in their assessment.
Then he goes on to say that, all things being considered the industry lost 9 billion dollars. Which one of the entities is suffering from the myopic vision here?
He said that there needs to be even greater production while admitting that the EU is there squeezing the price bottleneck. I said that they can increase their output a thousand fold and all it will result to is extra bonuses for the boys on wall street who trade on the commodities market. I am not an economist but this is economics for dummies my friends.
He projects some positive visions and hope for the future but these factors are of no significance to economic reality.What the good minister wants things to be, what he hopes them to be, are totally different for reality my friends.
He goes on to say that alcholism by the cane workers is affecting the industry. Again he has it the other way around. When people can barely make ends meet, when all hope is gone, people turn to drugs and alcahol.
My projection is that the government will have to subsidize the industry 9 billion per annum or watch it fail under its own weight of cost of production being more than the EU is willing to pay for the end product.
Moreover, which half of the shop does he consider himself as belonging to? The 20 century half or the 21 century half? I am confused here.
Joe.
People all over the world are fedup and angry at the nonperformance of these textbook breaucrats.
Check out this video that is spreading like wildfire on the internet to get a idea of the anger temperature in America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA
Joe.
Since when a labour leader, Nk Gopaul can run a business. Building the Skeldon factory was a ploy to get sugar workers support and their votes, nothing more.Time will tell about these disasters
SN what is wrong with my statement i made here earlier? Seriously this censorship thing has gone out of control send my comment back to me via email and show me what was objectionable at least man. gees this is frustrating to say the least.
Rawberts persaud needs to resign this is the same man who couldnt get the business plan to the EU in time and thus we lost 1.6 BN Euros. He is the same man who presided over all the flooding.
Are these the people we want running this country?
why complain, it’s your first axed. more to come.
That’s the job of the moderator, to moderate immoderate things. Be thankful. KN and GC don’t even allow comments. KN tried it and the moderator did such a poor job that they had to shut down the comments. As for GC … Good job, SN moderator, keep it up. Ask for a pay rise.
Robert Persaud was advised not to purchase those defective irrigation pumps from Florida, the same company that sold several defective pumps to New Orleans during Hurricane Kathrina, as well as several African countries. That company is now under investigation but everything is hush hush because the president of that company and Jeb Bush (former Governor of Florida , and brother of President George W. Bush) are buddies. More details are available.
i said it over and over, that is what the industrial nation does,
obsolete items at a discount/credit terms.
The bottom line is that steady harvest of Sugar cane is need to sustain sugar production. What will happen at the end of 2009 when the rainy season beings?
An El Nino condition is expected to take effect from late 2009 to 2010. This means more abnormal weather for many parts of the world. We have already seen what El Nino rain falls has done and can do to Guyana.
If the sugar industry plans on having steady crops/production then proper drainage is need; looking at the current drainage systems in Guyana right now, makes the future expectation of GYSUCO looks like wishful thinking.
don’t forget the rising fuel cost, and the fall of the market price for sugar.
over all the cost of production will ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????,
market price is falling.
What is the economic viability and cost benefit of planting more sugar when our biggest importer in the EU has reduced their import quota? Does the MBA grad know of the law of diminishing returns?
We struggled to sell 230K tonnes in the past 2 yrs why do we need to produce 330K tonnes when our import quota guarantee has been reduced. It makes no sense if we are able to sell only 230K tonnes per annum and then dump the other 100K tonnes on the market for a pittance thereby reducing the overall price of the product as calculated by the futures market.
Example, Guyana gets $1 per 1K ton for 230K tonnes = $230. Guyana gets $0.10 per 1K tonne for the next 100K tonnes = $10. Overall, our price per ton is $240/330 = $0.73 per 1k tonne. 100K tonnes of extra production has reduced our price by $0.27. With a country with such a high production cost this overproduction will eat away at profits. Overproduction should only be pursued when markets are readily available. Overproduction in the next few yrs is stupid when one considers the world economy will be recovering slowly from the financial downturn. As Joe stated subsidizing the industry has no basis in economic reality and appears to be more political pandering than anything else.
The Government should woo the international manufacturers of sweets and chocolates to open manufacturing operations in Guyana, and have the value added in Guyana, rather than overseas. I mean the real big manufacturers, like Mars, etc