Government has placed emphasis on recovery of the sugar industry even as it prepares to deal with a loss of $9 billion in revenue from October 1 and the new board has already started to make positive changes, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said.
At Guysuco’s Regional Honour’s Roll function held at the Rosignol Secondary School, Persaud told those gathered that it is critical for the Guyana sugar Corpora-tion (GuySuCo) to increase production and reduce cost.
He said that in terms of the macro-economic framework, the role of sugar is very critical in building a new economy, adding that for that reason government took the decision to invest in the Skeldon factory.
He said that despite the hardship faced, government did not shut down the industry as other countries such as Trinidad did as thousands of people depend on it.
Persaud also stated that “every single one of the opposition, without exception, criticized government’s decision to remain in sugar… not a single one of them offered their support.”
He told those gathered that “we must not be misled by those elements because they want to see the sugar industry fail.”
He said confidently that with all the intervention that government is making “the industry would continue on the path of recovery and in years to come it would be a very profitable entity.”
Government needs to adjust to the $9 billion loss in revenue per annum from October 1 which resulted from the way the Europeans handled the sugar protocol and the introduction of the price cut.
He said that for the first time Guysuco’s board is headed by a “labour leader” – Dr Nanda Gopaul – who has brought a variety of skills and experience and has an interest in the working class and in ensuring that the industry is viable.
He said the board was tasked with coming up with a blueprint to success on how it can make the sugar industry recover. The Booker Tate Management contract, he said was subsequently brought to an end after government felt that “there were certain weaknesses that had to be corrected.”
He said too that “the time has come for the industry to be run and managed by Guyanese, capable Guyanese and that is not to say that we still do not require external support.”
The minister said that government also took another step of organizing the management structure with the aim of making it much more efficient and modern to deal with the various challenges.
He pointed out that government has to make adjustments based on the challenges that the industry is confronted with and according to him “we could not have brought a management arrangement that belonged to the 20th century and expect it to deliver in the 21th century”.
He said too that a lot of emphasis had to be placed on growing cane and to “improve the efficiency of Guysuco because Guysuco had a reputation of being an inefficient organization”.
A lot of interventions had to be made, he said, to make industry viable.
Government also had to deal with the neglect taking place primarily in the agricultural side of the operation and a lot of emphasis had to be placed on growing more cane.
Alcohol
The minister said that the abuse of alcohol is causing the workers and their families’ well-being as well as that of the industry to be affected. He ordered that the facilities at the estate be “alcohol-free zones” and said that if workers need to purchase alcohol they must do so elsewhere.
According to the new Chief Executive, Errol Hanoman, “For too long, alcohol has been one of the main problems confronting many of our people and as a result this industry.”
He said that alcohol affects the workers’ performance on the job, their temperament and attendance. Due to that alcohol awareness programmes are being conducted and he implored the workers to “pay heed” and to “give ourselves and our families a chance for a better life in the future.”
He noted that even though performance of the corporation has been below expectation, there were employees who worked extremely hard and gave of their best.
Bad year
He pointed out that 2008 was a bad year and that only 226,267 tonnes of cane were produced; the lowest since 1990 when there was a production of 129,920 tonnes.
He said the drop was due to “steep increases in the prices of our key inputs such as fuel, fertilizers and freight” as well as “annual rainfall for 2008 was the highest in 53 years”.
On a positive note, he said during last year an agreement was signed for the period 2008 to 2015 and a minimum of 185,000 tonnes will be shipped to the EU each year. “During the year we shipped 186,302 tonnes to the EU.”
He also said that the commissioning trials for the new Skeldon factory commenced, power exported to the national grid continued with an average export of 4.5 MWH. In June, the National Cane Farming Committee was resuscitated, so that the cane farming component could once again be “given the serious attention it deserves.”
During last year too, the Blairmont factory and GuySuCo’s Marketing Department were re-certified as being ISO 9000:2001 compliant.
The industry also made “excellent progress in the area of variety research and development with eight new varieties has been released to estates for pre-commercial evaluation (higher sucrose content, more fibre for cogeneration).”
He said 2002, 2003 and 2004 saw production of 331,000, 302,000 and 325,000 tonnes respectively, emphasizing that after the intense rainfall in January 2005 the industry was unable to achieve tillage and replanting programmes primarily because of the wet conditions.
He said over 35% of the cultivation of cane-fields have been uneconomical to harvest because of poor cane yields occasioned by the inability to achieve the replanting; “it costs us more to harvest the cane compared with the revenue we earn from the sugar…”
He said that several initiatives are being implemented to make the industry more viable, such as accelerated rehabilitation of the cultivation using contractors from both within Guyana and abroad.
He noted that work that was done in 110 days would have to be done in 60 days and the weather must not be an excuse. He said they also aimed to rehabilitate the cultivation in two years rather than five years.
Persaud said he hopes that by December 2011 the Skeldon land development would have the requisite 1.2 million tonnes of cane in the ground. It is also expected that by March 2010, the end of the defects notification period, most of the defects identified as the new factory is operated should be rectified.
Also present at the function were Region Six Chairman Harrinarine Baldeo and Dr Nanda Gopaul who delivered the charge to the champion workers.