The decision to shut down the Amazon Caribbean Guyana Limited (AMCAR) Rosignol, West Bank Berbice Plant stems from shortages of labour and raw material.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMCAR, Jean-Francois Gerin, explained that the main reason for sending off 24 of their Heart of Palm factory workers was due to the short supply of harvesters resulting in the inadequate supply of raw materials.
“We had to give the notice to our staff of 24 persons Friday, so right now they have been given notice, they’ve been paid, they would have to proceed on leave…the 24 employees to whom we gave notice to saying that on the 22nd of August, if we can’t find any other solution, then we will be forced to close.”
Gerin explained that, “we [AMCAR] have a shortage of labour to get supply for the factory, so the factory is operating at twenty percent of its capacity making the product too costly. So we tried, we involved agencies from the government, we tried several things, we’ve been trying for months but unfortunately we haven’t been able to get back to our pre-COVID production.”
According to him, the labour shortage might be a result of persons leaving Berbice or venturing into other forms of work. AMCAR Berbice had previously closed in 2020 for 6 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in the company’s overseas market collapsing. They reopened operations in 2021 with the hope of revitalizing the company’s production but that too was crushed when one of their farms was flooded resulting in losses of thousands of pineapples, ginger and turmeric.
“We reopened in 2021 and we were hopeful of being able to resume full production, but 2021 came the flood, so it was impossible for people to go harvest the raw materials, we also lost everything on our farm, so that left us in even a more difficult situation and for months we’ve been battling to find extra labour force because we have about 200 jobs available for harvesters in Berbice…but we cannot find labour…and generally there is a shortage of labour in Guyana,” said the CEO.
Availability of organic materials is another challenge that the company faces, as their niche products are manufactured from organic produce, and of late, it has been difficult to find those raw materials in large quantity. Gerin said that during the period of the company’s closure, they will explore other options.
He said they have spoken with the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute (NAREI) and are hoping for significant help. “So we had to take the decision to close for now, we are going to look for solutions…so for now we have to stop because we’re losing money every day.”
He added: “… the Berbice factory needs a 200-person labour force…200 persons to harvest from the river, so one of the solutions we have proposed is that maybe to get some of the migrants who are now being assisted to live, give them some possibility to become economically proactive so that they can take care of their own families…rather than having to beg or having to depend on government handout…we propose to also identify former cane-cutters who have not been re-employed and who might be willing to do this kind of job…so those are the things that we looked at…but unfortunately so far we haven’t found a solution, we’ve been working on that but it hasn’t been materialized into a solution”.
AMCAR exports 100% of their production, however, for the past year, the unreliability of various shipping lines, due to regular cancellations, has also hurt the company.
Yesterday, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), which represents the workers, said it was shocked at the company’s decision to shutter its operations.
“For the workers, the news was a bombshell as they now have to seek elsewhere to secure a livelihood. The GAWU stands with them in this difficult period. The mostly female workforce is saddened by the Company’s decision to terminate them, more so as they were highly dependent on their earnings”, said the release. GAWU said that it has since written to the company in respect of their obligations and is hopeful that a response will soon be forthcoming. Gerin told this newspaper that they will be responding to the Union.
AMCAR processes and exports Heart of Palm and other certified organic products. It also has three branches in Essequibo. (Aviso Paul)
