Dear Editor,
GuySuCo has declared that they have completed an extended first crop in 2015 of 81,194 tonnes. Only 5,000 tonnes, they tell us, below the estimate of 86,201 tonnes.
Again I have to point out that the industry normally reaps its cane 40% in the first crop and 60% in the second crop, therefore the estimated projection for production for this year could only be a possible 203,000 tonnes according to traditional performance and distribution of the crops. A far cry from the 400,000 tonnes we set ourselves in the 1998 to 2008 strategic plan. In fact nearly 50% below what was estimated in the strategic plan and 62.5% lower than the 2004 production of 325,000 tonnes. The 241,000 tonnes they have targeted for this year does not at this time seem achievable and it points to an imbalance in the 1st crop to 2nd crop ratio of 40/60. Since if the annual production is slated to be 241,000 tonnes and the first crop production was expected to be 86,000 tonnes, the ratio of 1st to 2nd crops is now 35/65. This can only result from one activity, they reaped the first crop 2015 cane when it was 6 months old in the 2nd crop of 2014 to make up the numbers.
Sugar cane is bred to ripen at 12 months, reaping it before is a rapacious activity and we should stop it, also since it is a one-year crop just telling the public that what was not reaped at Skeldon and Enmore in the first crop will be reaped in the second crop, is deception since we are saying that we do not know that reaping canes past the due date of one year, can result in very poor yields.
GuySuCo is therefore still in deep trouble. Why does GuySuCo need a public relations firm to tell us all of this, they are underperforming and the PR department of the corporation should just come clean and tell us exactly what is going on, rather than to try to obscure the fact that it is not doing well at all. Frankly, given their financial situation I am surprised that they can afford a PR firm such as the one they have retained.
That the cane grew a little better in 2015 was no surprise, since we had exemplary weather for the entire first half of the year and also accounts for the slightly higher sugar content of the cane. Actually I would have expected a higher sugar content, given the good dry weather we had which means that GuySuCo is still plagued by a labour shortage and too many stoppages which is contributing to the canes being ground more than 48 hours after burning.
Therefore Editor, far from being reassured, I am still very skeptical that GuySuCo has made any significant improvement, such as is attempted by the misleading press release.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
