Guyana to receive $26M EU grant for sugar industry

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- The European Union has agreed to provide $26 million to help boost and diversify sugar production in Guyana, the Caribbean region's largest sugar exporter.

The EU says in a statement late Tuesday that the money is aimed at compensating for revenue losses stemming from an earlier EU decision to cut import prices for raw sugar exports by up to 36 percent.

Guyana also expects to receive an additional $106 million through 2013 from the EU to further support its sugar industry.

The EU said it wants to see Guyana diversify production to include packaged sugars, upgrade factories that date back to the British colonial era and encourage private farmers to cultivate land and sell cane to the state-run Guyana Sugar Corporation.