In a letter to Stabroek News recently, GAWU said Wales Estate, which had performed well three years ago is currently in a state of decline and it questioned whether the situation should be allowed to continue. The Wales Estate was producing sugar at sixty-two tonnes per hectare in 2007 and is now producing canes at forty-two tonnes per hectare, according to the union. Further, it stated that the estate’s factory facilitates 775 farmers who supply almost 50 per cent of the canes crushed at that location for their almost 2,200 hectares or 5,400 acres.
The Diamond cultivation will close, GAWU said, noting that the land at Diamond is a sizable area of some 2,600 hectares (6,424 acres) of prime arable land requiring no drainage pumps, “unlike many of the industry’s other cultivated areas”. It pointed out that the sugar corporation has proposed the expansion of the East Demerara cultivation in order to offset the production loss resulting from the closure at Diamond, but observed that the proposed “new land area” was previously retired by Guysuco because it was established that the soil was not adequately productive and, as marginal lands, it was not economically viable to cultivate.
GAWU referred to the Commission of Enquiry, in 2008, which had reported on the performance of East Demerara Estates and found that cane fields, in close proximity to GuySuCo’s Head Office, where the CEO and other senior functionaries are located, had had sparse cane growth, significant weed infestation and poor drainage. The union also mentioned that a Review Committee found in 2007 that Uitvlugt Estate’s cultivation was significantly rundown with a significant proliferation of weeds in the fields and in the canals of the Estate.
“Even more revealing was the testimony given by a previous General Manager to the Committee, whereby he confirmed that he was tasked by the Chief Executive, a Booker Tate employee, to prepare a Paper for the closure of the Estate despite the mandate of GuySuCo’s Board to maintain productively all eight estates. The rumour that the Estate was slated for closure had a demoralizing effect on the Estate’s workforce as it was widely said that the Estate was going to be closed leading to high incidences of absenteeism and lack of commitment”, the union stated.
GAWU reiterated that the expansion of Skeldon Estate’s cultivation by 4,685 hectares should have been completed simultaneously with the commissioning of the new factory. However, it noted that the project, while under the direction of Booker Tate, merely expanded 1,500 hectares from 2002 to 2008. According to the union, not having the 1.2 million tonnes of cane to supply the new factory annually, is depriving the industry from benefiting from sugar production this year by almost 80,000 tonnes.
The four Demerara Estates – Enmore, LBI/Diamond, Wales and Uitvlugt produced a total of 85,068 tonnes of sugar in 2008 (a bad year) as against 128,208 tonnes in 2004 (a good year), representing a decline of 50.7 per cent, GAWU added.
Meanwhile, GuySuCo in a rebuttal letter which accused the union of distorting the grim realities of sugar, said the budget for 2010 anticipates a production of 280,000 tonnes sugar with a 5% increase in land preparation and planting activities from the 20% level that is normal. The corporation disclosed that its projected cash deficit at the end of 2009 is expected to be $523M if the sale of the Diamond lands of $10.6Bn is to be included as cash proceeds, adding that if the proceeds are not included then the cash deficit is expected to be $11.2Bn.
But GAWU had questioned the sale of the Diamond cultivation in its letter asking who will buy the land at Diamond which it said was valued by GuySuCo at $30.6B? “Will squatters take it over? Or will it be acquired without compensation by the Government?”, the union asked rhetorically.
However, GuySuCo said that if the sale of the Diamond lands fails to materialize then the borrowings for the corporation will be considerably greater, assuming lenders could be found. It added that if the land sales do not materialize, a loss $4,900M is projected.
