Corentyne cane farmers face ruin because of the poor performance of the Skeldon factory and the high financing charge for loans from banks.
This was the contention yesterday of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI), piling further pressure on the government to come up with solutions for the beleaguered Skeldon factory.
The government has tried to play down the problems of the Chinese-built US$110 million factory which was intended to be the saviour of the industry but has been riddled with problems since its launch in 2008.
Rated to grind 350 tonnes of cane per hour it is nowhere near this and is taking a much higher amount of cane to produce a tonne of sugar (TC/TS). This was a key problem pointed out by the Chamber yesterday.
The Chamber said that at a meeting recently held between UCCCI and Skeldon cane farmers it was reported that GuySuCo’s Skeldon factory is taking an average of 20-25 tonnes of cane to make one tonne of sugar. It said farmers had been promised that the new factory would be using an average of eight to 10 tonnes of cane to make a tonne of sugar.
The release said that as a result of this, farmers’ liability to the banks and to GuySuCo kept increasing crop after crop.
“Farmers made it clear at the meeting that unless immediate relief or solution is offered, they will have no alternative but to abandon their farms,” the UCCI asserted.
It said that among some of the other factors besetting the farmers are the high harvesting and transportation costs, which includes rental of cane punts from GuySuCo. Because of the high TC/TS, farmers don’t have the resources to harvest their canes and depend solely on GuySuCo for harvesting, which the Chamber said is being done at a very high cost.
High interest rates and financing costs are also shackling farmers. The Chamber said that farmers have borrowed billions of dollars from the banks and invested in sugar cane cultivation.
“It was also reported at the meeting that promises were made by both former president Bharrat Jagdeo and current President Donald Ramotar to the farmers, that government will put systems in place to reduce the taxes on banks, which will then pass down to the farmers, resulting in lower interest rates, to date this was not done,” the Chamber said.
Based on a tri-partite agreement signed between the banks, the farmers and GuySuCo, the Chamber said that if the farmers fail to meet their financial commitment to the bank, GuySuCo will take over the farm, operate it and repay the bank.
“According to the farmers this is on the verge of happening,” the Chamber declared.
The Corentyne Cham-ber said it feels strongly that the inefficiency and mismanagement of GuySuCo should not be passed down to the farmers and as such was calling for a Core Sampling System to be put in place.
It said that his will enable cane suppliers to be paid for cane delivered to the factory gate in contrast to the current system of payment for sugar output declared by the factory.
The Corentyne Cham-ber also wants the Ministry of Agriculture to put systems in place so as to allow part of the $6 billion government subvention for the sugar industry in this year’s budget to be funnelled to the farmers.
The Corentyne Cham-ber also called for the restructuring of the industry as had been done with the rice industry under the late president Desmond Hoyte.
“The economy in the East Berbice area is significantly dependent on the sugar industry, with this in mind we do not want to see GuySuCo’s failure meaning failure of the industry.
The UCCCI is therefore calling on government to look into the possibility of opening up the industry, something similar to what was done with the rice industry by former president Desmond Hoyte.
This will allow for sugar cane farmers to be able to sell their canes to privately owned factories or for large farmers to process their canes and sell their sugar locally or export,” the statement added.
