Dear Editor,
I want to thank the Chairman of GuySuCo, Prof Clive Thomas for his timely statement now placed on the public record. His column in Sunday Stabroek (Feb 7) reaffirms the Board’s decision to go for closure. It also softens the blow by stating that land would be given to farmers to grow sugarcane and other crops, and that also much will be done to ensure workers do not have to endure unnecessary hardship.
However, another good proposal from a former chairman of the Board, Vic Oditt is also now on the public record and deserves consideration. This proposal calls for selling WSE to a shareholder corporation in which workers would own shares, hire professional management and produce crops as their corporation management determines. The bottom line is that after an initial two years, WSE would be off the government’s balance sheet, namely, government would not have to continue subsidizing WSE.
The primary goal of the government is to unload the sugar estates so that they do not become a permanent drain on the national treasury. The secondary goal is to ensure that the 17,000 workers do not fall into poverty and that these estate villages do not become ghost villages. These goals in my opinion would be better achieved by approving the proposal from Vic Oditt. The concept of worker-owner-management would also be given a chance to grow and develop in Guyanese society.
Another point for Prof Thomas’s board and stakeholders to ponder:
I live in Queens, New York. Yesterday in my neighbourhood supermarket I noticed that brown sugar sells – a two pound package for $2.45. The supermarket was also well stocked with Guyana packaged rice. My question is: if Guyana packaged rice can be marketed and sold in North America, why cannot the same be done for Guyana sugar? All Guyana sugar can be sold on the North American market at a price greater than $1 a pound. (This assumes the US government does not place a quota on Guyana sugar, but this is something to be negotiated with the US government.)
It seems to me that if only all Guyana sugar can be packaged and sold for at least $1 a pound, then on this marketing concept alone, GuySuCo can be saved. This whole idea of selling Guyana sugar in bulk for 16 cents a pound on the world market is ridiculous. It doesn’t have to be so. Selling packaged sugar only, together with diversification to other crops and products like ethanol on each estate, in my opinion, seems to offer a formula on which the sugar industry can be saved.
I make this appeal to Prof Thomas: Have the board consider turning over in stages all sugar estates to shareholder corporations. The important thing is that government does not have to spend another dollar to bail them out in future years. From the CoI report, I noticed that government has bailed out GuySuCo to the tune of US$200 million in the last 5 years; another US$60 million is allocated to bail them out in 2016. This US$260 million is being flushed down into a black hole with the prospect of no good coming out of it. Hand over each estate to a public corporation, and let government be done with it.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
