Tipping point
Alarmed at the crisis state of the sugar industry in 2011, I devoted more than a score of Sunday columns in that year (May 29 to October 16) to its discussion and drew attention to the crying need for radical reform and restructuring. A year later, in 2012, the situation had worsened and my alarm had grown considerably. I therefore decided to re-visit some of the issues in the industry raised in my 2011 columns. This was accomplished in an additional dozen Sunday columns in that year (September 2 to December 23). At this point of time (the beginning of 2014), I am now more than ever convinced that the crisis in the sugar industry has passed its tipping-point or point of no return. This means that all hopes for a rational, considered and ordered reform and reconstruction of the industry are lost.
As a rule, all industries and businesses go through life cycle changes. As I shall show in forthcoming columns GuySuCo and the wider sugar industry are at the industrial life cycle stage of post maturity and long-term secular decline. As presently configured the country’s sugar business can no longer go forward as a viable commercial endeavour.
Previous topics
Those previous columns in 2011 and 2012 had addressed several vitally important topics in