The Uitvlugt sugar factory on Wednesday used almost ten times the amount of cane normally needed to produce a tonne of sugar, a sign of serious mechanical problems.
According to a Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) release, on April 23, it was informed by the workers that the Uitvlugt factory, over the last 24 hours, utilised, on average, 296.6 tonnes of canes to produce a tonne of sugar. The day before, the Union said that the estate utilised just over 29 tonnes of cane to produce a tonne of sugar. GAWU stated that this shows that the situation deteriorated by 921 per cent, further adding, that to put the situation into perspective, the estate had expected to utilize just over 12 tonnes of sugar to produce a tonne of sugar.
The Union says that along with the workers, it is “deeply upset about the situation” and blamed “mechanical breakdowns” as being at the “root of the problem.” It shared that it has learnt that the factory suffered breakdowns aggregating to some 415 hours over its 11-week cropping period. The breakdowns are equivalent to about 3.2 weeks of operations.
