While GuySuCo’s first crop production was around 10,000 tonnes below its revised first crop figure it fell considerably below what its turnaround plan had envisaged and former shadow minister of agriculture, Anthony Vieira has refuted the view that the low output is attributable to the arid El Nino weather.
With the first crop output this year at 81,864 tonnes, the Guyana Sugar Corporation is facing a tough second crop, particularly if it is to achieve numbers close to the projected 250,000 tonnes which the industry needs for its recovery.
Even so, the production target for this year considerably falls off the mark set in the turnaround plan for 2010; around 300,000 tonnes of sugar. The plan envisages production reaching 400,000 in 2013 provided the industry is able to produce at a certain level during the period 2009-2013.
In keeping with the strategy the first crop this year would have been estimated at around 130,000 tonnes. GuySuCo said it had eventually set a revised target of 91,675 tonnes for the first crop, but noted that weather conditions adversely affected production numbers. The corporation cited El Nino saying it was able to achieve numbers just below the target despite constraints it faced.
Anthony Vieira, former PNCR-1G parliamentarian, reacting to the statement from the corporation about the weather conditions, said the El Nino conditions experienced late last year could not have affected the growth of the 2010 first crop. Vieira’s comments were submitted online to this newspaper in response to a press release from GuySuCo on the issue.
Vieira, who was also Shadow Minister of Agricul-ture during his tenure in parliament, said the weather conditions could not be the reason why the first crop numbers were low because it occurred long after the canes had ended their boom period of growth in November/ December 2010. “It is totally incompetent to tell us that the [ failure] December rains affected the growth of canes which were entering the ripening stage of growth in December 2010 if anything it would have helped it to ripen better”, he stated. He argued that the drought would have affected the growth of the second crop 2010 which was very young when the drought hit, “so telling us that the second crop of 2010 will be better than the 2010 first crop flies in the face of reason”.
General Secretary of GAWU, Seepaul Narine told Stabroek News recently that there would have been some cane reaped late last year and “brought forward” from that period. However, he said it was a small amount and nothing significant. Narine said that canes were being reaped throughout the first quarter of this year for the first crop, noting that while Skeldon was still grinding in late April canes were being reaped. He said the weather would have impacted on what was reaped, but he said the industry fell just below the target which was set.
Narine said the second crop for 2009 ended early December and according to him, the industry had not reaped much cane for its 2010 first crop. He said some might have been reaped earlier, but insisted that it was a small amount. He said the second crop begins in July, noting that they would be watching the May/June rainy season to assess what impact it might have on that crop.
The sugar industry has struggled with production with dismal numbers recorded in 2008 and 2009; a higher level of productivity was projected this year. The turnaround plan strategises that the Skeldon factory will be the main driver of production, increasing industry output from 250,000 tonnes of sugar in 2009 to over 400,000 in 2013. But Skeldon has been struggling and it ended the first crop as the only factory grinding as of late April.
The sugar corporation has admitted the problems at Skeldon saying in its recent press statement that engineers are working on the defects at the factory, which are close to fifty, four noted as critical. Skeldon would need to pick up and perform more credibly if it is to generate the projected sugar supply it was designed for.
