Only serious changes will bring Guyana sugar industry forward

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (GINA): The year 2008 was a difficult period for Guyana’s sugar industry as it experienced a decline in production as a result of the heavy rainfall period, coupled with Government’s concerns about the management of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco).

Production targets which were estimated at 315,000 tonnes had dropped to 200,026 tonnes.

During a recent visit to Berbice where the hope exists for a revival of the sugar industry with Skeldon Sugar Factory, Jagdeo said although weather played a part in the challenges faced by the industry, the management of the company had to be revisited.

“The staff of GuySuco remains the same but we produced close to a 100,000 tonnes less, so the staff didn’t change so you had the same wage bill but you produced 100,000 tonnes less. How can a company survive in those conditions? For the future we are going to be in serious situation, when you look at the labour and I am talking about management, many of them have no clear idea on what to do. They don’t manage the corporation well, we are making changes there,” Jagdeo said.

He considers investment the Skeldon factory a worthwhile one which was necessary for the survival of the industry which is today faced with a series of strikes and low labour turn outs.

Such actions lead to the destruction of the industry and a waste of the major investment according to the Head of State who lashed out at the People’s National Congress Reform (AFC) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) for saying that the Government should not have invested.

“If we had not invested in Skeldon then a few years from now, two – three years from now we will have to close all the estates and say that sugar is finished in Guyana, which is what they wanted,” Jagdeo said.

The Head of State said he was adamant in his criticisms about the sugar industry, not because he has a hatred for workers or management but because he is determined to see the survival of the sugar industry

“Our commitment to workers, the PPP’s commitment to workers is etched in stone. It will always be there but you can be committed only if you have workers, if you only have a functioning industry you can’t be committed to workers, if there is no work! And that is what we are heading for if we don’t make changes, serious changes in a whole range of things from both in management, the way we spend money to workers’ behaviour,” Jagdeo said.

The Skeldon Factory is built with a capacity to produce 110,000 tonnes of sugar per year and plans will be in place for a distillery, refinery and the use of sugar as a source of bio-diesel, when production increases.

The plan also encompasses cogeneration, and an expanded Albion factory, which would together produce, 30 MW of power to be sold to the national grid.

The factory is designed to be one of the most technologically advanced sugar factories in this part of the world.

source: caribbeannetnews