Former President Donald Ramotar says that information filtering out of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the sugar industry says that two estates, one in Demerara and the other in Berbice are targeted for closure.
In a column in today’s Mirror newspaper, Ramotar made an impassioned appeal for the industry not to be closed and offered a number of suggestions for its resuscitation including use of bagasse for power generation and the opening of a distillery. The report of the CoI headed by former agriculture minister Vibert Parvatan is to be handed to the government on October 17.
Ramotar, who had taken a lot of flak for the state of the sugar industry considering that he was a board member of Guysuco from 1993 up to the time he became President and also had presidential powers between November, 2011 and May 2015, also contended that his government and the corporation had been taking steps to revive the industry.
He said that GuySuCo and its now sacked CEO Rajendra Singh had worked out a strategic plan.
“Dr Singh worked not only with the board and management, but went down to all categories of the workers and engaged them to have their views on what needed to be done.
“The plan also benefited from the expertise of real professionals in the field internationally. Experts from India, South Africa, Australia were engaged to produce a very good plan”, Ramotar stated.
He said that the plan revolved around cutting costs and looking at other revenue streams. He said that during the year Singh had worked hard to ensure the return of correct agricultural practices such as the timely application of fertiliser. Ramotar said that biofertilisers were introduced, more lands were put under food fallowing and legume fallowing was reintroduced. In addition, 30 new tractors were purchased, all-weather roads were built at Skeldon, 300 new punts were put into operation and the conversion of fields was ongoing.
At the troubled Skeldon estate, Ramotar said that during the out of crop period, a new pump dumper was installed capable of lifting 8.5 tonnes of cane, boilers were retubed and the diffuser fixed. The flagship Skeldon factory had been plagued by difficulties from its inception and there had been several earlier attempts at remedial work. Ramotar’s predecessor, Bharrat Jagdeo had been behind the Skeldon modernisation programme and had been heavily criticised over its failure.
Ramotar also chided the European Union (EU) for not releasing 25m Euros – 20m of which was for sugar – and said that it is hoped that the money will be paid over now. The EU had withheld the money as Parliament had been prorogued and there were also accountability issues.
Ramotar noted the partnership that had been agreed for the sale of energy from the Skeldon factory to Guyana Power and Light and posited that other estates such as Albion, Rose Hall and Enmore could also become providers of electricity and significantly boost GuySuCo. He added that excess bagasse could be compressed and used to restart factories.
He posited that GuySuCo could up the amount of packaged sugar, look into the possibility of a distillery and expand ethanol production for blending with gasoline for use in vehicles.
Crititics have said that the PPP/C government had nearly 23 years to put many of these initiatives in place to secure the future of sugar but failed and that over that period, Ramotar was one of the major decision makers in the party and President for nearly four years.
“It is my view that the industry can come out of this situation caused by the changed trading arrangements of the European Union, but it needs and deserves the support of the government”, Ramotar added.
