The Guyana Sugar Cor-poration (GuySuCo) has set a production target of 74,172 tonnes of sugar for its first crop but sources believe that it may not be achieved since there is not enough cane in the ground and the May/June rainy season is expected to impact output.
Apart from that, one source told Stabroek News, “If the seasonal rain comes, GuySuCo would be far away from achieving their target….”
He said that a total of 40,634 tonnes has been produced for the week ending April 22, with over 30,000 tonnes more to go.
“The problem with the sugar industry is that it is not producing cane in keeping with the land and other resources that it has, like machineries and the workforce,” he said.
“GuySuCo is likely to produce the lowest first crop target for the past 25 years. They are just a few weeks away from the seasonal rain and look how low is the production,” he added.
He pointed out that the production at all of the estates is “far from what it used to be. GuySuCo started the crop later when they could have started earlier when the weather was good.”
He said that during the rainy weather, “the workers can’t work on the slippery, muddy dams, which have not been repaired to pull the punts and the machines can’t operate in the fields.”
They said that the dams are in a deplorable state and the workers and even the machines cannot manoeuvre efficiently on them.
“So as soon as the rain begins, GuySuCo would not be able to continue,” the source said, before adding that the company would have to conclude the first crop.
Meanwhile, in an interview, President of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union Komal Chand voiced his disappointment that the management team of GuySuCo was not able to turnaround the industry even though the government pumped $23 billion into it in 2015 and 2016.
He said, “Whatever financial support they [government] can give at this time to the industry for a few years, it is an important investment… because they have not been able to create alternative avenues to absorb the workers, to bring in the foreign exchange, to contribute to the income tax and to the National Insurance Scheme [NIS].”
He said with the closure of the estates and uncertain future of the Skeldon estate, 9,000 workers would be without jobs and would be unable to make income tax and NIS payments.
This would ultimately create a ripple effect on the economy.
Many workers would not be able to make the required 750 contributions to qualify for pension when they reach age 60.
He said that at the moment there is a lot of “demotivation” among workers due to the uncertainty of their employment at the Rose Hall, Enmore and Skeldon estates.
Chand said that last year when government promis-ed to consolidate the Enmore and LBI estates, it gave the “conclusion that the consolidation of the two estates would ensure that Enmore remains functional.
“Then all of a sudden comes the government’s proposal to close Enmore. So fear and doubt hang over the head of all workers.”
He said workers are aware they no longer have a future at their locations, having observed that the government has prepared for closure because no cane was planted there for harvesting next year.
In fact, “they have abandoned the cane planting exercise in both Rose Hall and Enmore which clearly indicates to all and sundry that the estates will be closed…,” he added.
Chand also noted that the government has “no clear cut, straight policy… the workers have not enjoyed a pay increase for the past two years despite the fact that the cost of living keeps mounting.”
He added: “Then they [government] have a heap of taxes now in place, putting more burden on the people. So it is creating negative conditions to make the industry vibrant again.”
He said sugar sometimes goes through a bad period, recalling that from 1986 to 1991 only 160,000 tonnes of sugar were produced.
But he said the industry bounced back.
“Apart from paying taxes, it helped to keep employment going and it assisting significantly with the foreign exchange. That is why they had good period in terms of the economy coming out of its doldrums, as it was in the 1980s,” he said.
Chand added that government should have looked at the economic, financial and social dimensions with respect to the workers and the industry before making any rash decisions.
