Once referred to as “white gold,” sugar has been facing some tough times lately. The sugar industry in Guyana has been bittersweet at best, given the history of genocide, enslavement and indentureship from which it emerged. For decades the sugar industry in the Caribbean has been steadily declining, with many at a loss as to how to save the industry that is hemorrhaging money.
Here in Guyana, sugar appears to be on its last breath and prospects for its resuscitation seem dim. While sugar remained the bedrock of Guyana’s agricultural sector, boasting contributions of 20% to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in its heyday, changes in preferential agreements, government’s closure of estates and the industry’s slow march towards increased mechanisation and diversification, has seen an end to the reign of sugar as we know it.
Preferential price agreements made with the European Union over four decades ago had for a long-time kept sugar in a comfortable position as the “king” crop of Guyana. However, overreliance on preferential agreements and prices saw governments becoming very lax when it came to setting up alternative measures and securities for their sugar industry. Their overreliance made sugar susceptible to the EU’s market falls and structural and policy changes.
Hence, when the World Trade Organization ruled that our preferential prices were in contravention of global free trade rules, Guyana’s security blanket would be removed and phased price cuts for sugar was implemented. This, of course, caused a significant drop in the price Guyana was now able to garner for its sugar. While the EU in 2006 began to provide Guyana with yearly budgetary support to compensate for the 36% cut in preferential market prices, this came to an end in 2017 and the EU ruled out further aid to the ailing sugar sector.
As is often the case when shit hits the fan, there is always a lot of blame to go around – but the problems that have plagued the sugar industry existed since its genesis. It was only a matter of time before it began to crumble under its own weight but no one really wants a funeral for sugar.
In Guyana, you can always trust that there are ethnic dimensions and polarisations lying at the heart of many issues. Posturing over the relevance and viability of continued sugar production has for many years focussed not on sound fact and economic analysis but on feelings and ethnic appeals. Sugar has and continues to be used as a political football by our nation’s politicians. Just note opposition presidential candidate Irfaan Ali’s election promises to reopen closed sugar estates. This is in spite of the fact that privatisation seems to be a pipe dream given that investors have been walking away from the shuttered “scrap-iron” estates.
With the majority of sugarcane workers being of Indian descent made redundant by an Afro majority government, the use of race to incite tensions has been and will most likely continue to be a part of election campaigns. With the estates hemorrhaging taxpayer monies, I do believe that it was necessary to close the estates down, but the way in which those closures happened is cause for concern. In one sweeping decision, the coalition government closed down four of seven estates and made thousands of cane cutters redundant and left them in search of new jobs after decades in the sugarcane industry. I do not subscribe to the belief being peddled in certain sections that the closures were a racially motivated decision. I think what the closures showed us was the government’s contempt for poor people.
While we can argue economics, there should have been a phased removal of the workforce and prompt payment of severance packages to those let go. Unfortunately, the coalition, in its usual bumbling fashion, failed to think strategically about how to deal with the estates. Given that sugar estates exist in primarily rural areas in which poverty runs rampant and alternative job opportunities are low, there should have first been assessments of the possible ramifications of closure of the sugar estates and the impact on affected communities. When you only think in terms of dollars, it fosters a certain callousness in the way in which the working class is treated and makes it easier for their continued subjugation.
While the hope to revive elements of the sugar industry remains, a lot of work and imagination needs to go into the process of making sugar profitable again. Despite our long history in dealing with sugar, the Caribbean still lags behind when it comes to diversification of the sugar industry and production. At this juncture in our history, when we need to start thinking more clearly about the future of our country and the ways in which we manage and improve our various sectors, we cannot afford to fall prey to one-trick ponies and their election gimmicks.
