With the local sugar industry in dire straits, President Donald Ramotar yesterday turned to Cuba for help.
Speaking in Havana at the Fifth Summit of Caricom Heads and Cuba, Ramotar noted central role that sugar has played in the region and recalled Cuba’s offer to assist Caricom countries in this regard.
According to a release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ramotar in his intervention in the presence of Cuban President Raul Castro and other heads “recognized the vast experience of Cuba in the development of its sugar industry and its successful innovations; in this regard he offered Guyana’s willingness to benefit from Cuba’s expertise in the development of Guyana’s sugar industry.”
The local sugar industry has seen slumping production in recent years and is struggling to attain a modest target for 2014. It also has major problems with its flagship Skeldon factory which is now a huge drain on the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
The sugar corporation has registered huge losses in recent years and has had difficulty mobilizing financing.
Field husbandry has also been seen as a key problem and the industry has also been beset by labour problems and the challenge of transforming sugar cane cultivation for mechanical harvesting.
