The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has plunged further into financial crisis as sugar production for 2013 fell to 186,807 tonnes, the lowest recorded in 22 years.
In a year rife with industrial relations issues, mechanical problems and inadequate grinding capacity, the industry’s performance slid beneath GuySuCo’s minimum production rate of 232,000 tonnes of sugar for its international and local quotas, leaving the corporation severely indebted to banks and suppliers.
Up to the end of August last year, sugar production was a miserable 81,000 tonnes. The flagship Skeldon factory which was hyped as having the capability to grind 350 tonnes of cane an hour was grinding just 185 tonnes per hour and management had reduced the stated rate to 250 tonnes,
