Dear Editor,
Let me make it clear to Dr Leslie Ramsammy who demanded an answer from the APNU+AFC on whether they are going to keep the sugar industry open.
It was Mr. Granger who was very clear in saying that sugar is too big to fail. In March 2014, it was none other than Moses Nagamootoo who said that if the AFC is in any Government it will lead the “transformation of the sugar belt to ensure that the industry survives”. Then in April 2015, it was the Prime Ministerial Candidate and presumptive Minister of Agriculture who said “while diversification is important to save the sugar industry it must be done in a manner to ensure that workers on the 16,000-strong payroll are not put out of work”.
Only someone who is being deliberately mischievous will not comprehend such a clear statement.
Here are some facts, and I ask this same Dr. Ramsammy to come to some informed conclusions.
- The Jagdeo regime had Donald Ramotar on the Guysuco Board and that Board bypassed a seasoned Indian company to construct this Skeldon Factory. Walchandnagar Industries Ltd has built over 70 sugar factories across the world from Vietnam to Colombia. The proposal from this Indian company was some G$7 billion cheaper that what the Chinese charged.
- The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal chose a Chinese builder who had no track record on building sugar factories. Actually, Skeldon was their first job at constructing a sugar factory. Guyana was their pilot case and our taxpayers have paid the hefty sum of G$44 billion for them to learn how to build a sugar factory. End result? A factory that drains the industry of vital financial resources!
- To illustrate this point the old British-built factory at Skeldon (which the Donald Ramotar Board of Directors moth-balled), was using 12 tonnes of cane to produce 1 tonne of sugar. The new, so-called “state-of-the-art” Chinese factory uses more than twice as much cane to do the same job – 26 tonnes. This inefficiency created a direct loss to the industry of G$0.9 billion and G$1.1 billion in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
- In 2009, the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime lost G$1.6 billion from the European Union (EU) because of their late submission of the Sugar Action Plan. That is money lost forever by the sugar industry that will never return.
- The Jagdeo/Ramotar cabal knew since 1993 that the EU was going to decrease the price paid for sugar by 36 percent and they got 10 years from the EU to put their house in order with billions in support finance to help in the transition.
Cut the high nonsense Dr Ramsammy.
Yours faithfully,
Sase Singh
