The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) yesterday reported first crop production falling significantly short of its target and it blamed labour problems and above average rainfall for the poor results even as it appealed for the support of the workers’ unions to arrest the situation.
GuySuCo CEO Paul Bhim told Stabroek News last evening that the actual figure for the crop is approximately 71,100 tonnes of sugar, which is considerably off the projected target of 101,800 tonnes based on the availability of the canes at the beginning of the crop. Bhim added that the figure is not likely to increase by much as grinding comes to an end in the coming weeks.
With the exception of Skeldon and the Blairmont sugar estates, all the estates across the country closed their crop on May 11, GuySuCo said in a statement yesterday, while reporting the production shortfall.
At the moment, 214,100 tonnes of canes remain to be harvested in the second crop, but GuySuCo noted that the yield would not be the same since the canes would be much older. It stated that if all the canes were harvested this crop, production would have been closer to the projected targets and adequate revenue would have been available to pay the workers on time. But the failure to make the first crop target created an unfavourable cash flow situation and it added that as a result it had informed the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) on May 18 that it would have been unable to make the holiday-with-pay payout to sugar workers on time on the estates which have bought their crop to a premature end due to inclement weather conditions.
When contacted for a comment last evening, GAWU General Secretary Seepaul Narine told Stabroek News that he did not see the GuySuCo statement and as a result he could not offer a comment. At the same time, efforts to reach GAWU president Komal Chand were futile.
In its statement, GuySuCo noted that there was an average turnout of harvesters of only 52%, while there were also some 146 strikes by workers within the first crop. It said it was hard hit by strike action mainly at the Blairmont estate in Berbice, where some 11,700 man days of a total of 18,130 for the industry were lost. Had the situation proved different and canes were supplied to the semi mechanical harvesters, an additional 7,500 tonnes of sugar—equivalent to $1.2 million—could have been produced, it argued.
Further, according to GuySuCo, the low turnout of sugar harvesters contributed to extremely low grinding hours per week at the factories. On an optimum basis, it explained, a factory is expected to grind canes for more than 130 hours per week. However, only the Rose Hall estate was able to grind at an average of 100 hours per week while the other estates averaged between 75 and 100 hours per week.
GuySuCo also said production was affected by rainfall, which was 57% above the long term mean. It noted that during the inclement weather conditions, the sogginess of the soils prevent the Bell loaders from operating because of soil compaction and as a result the cane harvesters manually cut and load the canes, rather than stacking them from the mechanical harvesters. But according to GuySuCo, cane harvesters are reluctant to cut and load the canes and prefer to return to their homes. As a result, it said burnt canes are left to deteriorate on the fields for days.
Former PNCR parliamentarian and former sugar industry executive Tony Vieira, in a recent letter published in this newspaper, noted that this year’s first crop would represent a new low for the industry in two decades. Vieira, who pointed out that last year’s first crop yielded 106,627 tonnes, also flayed the management of the corporation and the government over the underperformance of the multi-million dollar Skeldon sugar factory. He said that “the sinking flagship at Skeldon, a monument to Mr [Bharrat] Jagdeo’s disastrous tenure as president of this republic and the incompetence of Robert Persaud and the Board of GuySuCo” produced 10,435 tonnes of sugar in 2011 and 6,596 tonnes in 2012.
Bhim told Stabroek News that since Skeldon was a mechanised operation, the weather conditions there have severely hampered production.
But Vieira, in his letter, also stated that the Skeldon estate was traditionally the best yielding estate of cane and sugar per acre and was the flagship of Bookers and then GuySuCo from 1976. He added that because of the intermittent grinding due to the low rate of harvesting in the rain, the US$200 million Chinese-built factory becomes completely uneconomical to operate and he asked why the factory was still running.
In April this year, GuySuCo announced that the troubled Skeldon Sugar factory was set to undergo major rehabilitation works in the coming months in order to have it fully operational. This includes the redesigning and re-engineering of several aspects of the facility and GuySuCo has been working with South African firm Bosch Group of Companies to remedy the major problems at the facility.
