Dear Editor,
This year is another challenging one for sugar and rice in Guyana given developments in the European Union and Jamaica. I begin with problems facing the sugar industry back in 2001 when I was employed with the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (G.A.W. U.).
The sugar industry produced its highest sugar production in eighteen years at that time. Production was two hundred and seventy three thousand (273,000) tonnes although unseasonal weather affected adversely land preparation work.
The Euro was yet to recover from its low position since it came into being on 1st January 1999.Due to the fall of the Euro vis-a-vis the US dollar the sugar corporation’s loss was billions of dollars. Another crucial decision was the funding of the Corporation’s Strategic Plan.The World Bank Study was requiring the closure of the Demerara Estates which at that point in time would have aggravated the poverty situation and increased unemployment and under-employment.
The industry therefore had to produce an alternative arrangement in order to move the industry foward without the closure of the Demerara Estates and at the same time ensure the implementation of the Strategic Plan. The industry suffered a heavy loss because of the depreciation of the euro and the corporation was only breaking even. The other sugar industries in the region were subsidised by their governments, but Guysuco did not enjoy such a privilege.
The sugar corporation’s proposed strategic plan was less reliant on the euro as a source of revenue and targets a reduction in the cost of producing sugar from US21 cents per pound to US 11-12 cents per pound. To achieve that the government and Guysuco are targeting expansion in the best cane growing areas to reduce unit cost and take advantage of regional markets.
The arbitrary abolition of the sugar protocol by the European Union after all this planning and hard work by the government and Guysuco is distressing. However all is not lost because most of the Caricom countries will soon pull out of sugar and Guyana will surface again as the region’s only sugar producing nation .
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
Former G.A.W.U. Field Secretary
