The Guyana Sugar Corporation has missed its first crop production target of 86,201 tonnes of sugar, ending the harvest with approximately 83,000 tonnes even after the corporation extended the crop by two weeks.
The 86,201 tonnes figure is modest compared to previous years when production was high.
Stabroek News was told that the only estate still operational was Enmore with management hoping for one last crop burning should the weather permit. That would not however be a significant addition.
General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) Seepaul Narine told Stabroek News yesterday that up to the end of yesterday Enmore had not decided whether one last burning would take place which would require manual cutting of the canes.
Stabroek News was told by a sugar source that the Enmore Estate was hoping to continue so as to lessen the 3,000-tonne deficit but that the heavy rain was a hindrance.
Narine had previously told Stabroek News that the first crop was scheduled to end during the week of May 5th but the corporation would keep going once the weather permitted in a drive to make the first crop target.
In the two weeks of the extension, this newspaper was made to understand that there was very little movement in production levels. GuySuCo had reported in a release ending the week of May 5, 2015 that production was already at 83,000 tonnes. The week prior, GAWU had informed Stabroek News that the production target was approximately 74,000 tonnes.
Yesterday, Narine said that while the US$110M Skeldon Estate fell significantly behind its crop target, the other seven estates did fairly well and were consistently making their production targets. He called the 2015 first crop a “welcome sign” even though Skeldon failed to meet its target.
This newspaper was informed that the Skeldon Estate which closed off this week has produced approximately 8,000 tonnes of sugar, missing its 17,200-tonne target by more than half. The union has raised concerns in the past that fertiliser application continues to be off, resulting in poor quality canes. The union said it had continued to “raise the issue of management of the industry and the need for us to have an inquiry.”
This newspaper was told by a GuySuCo manager that while the weather has basically drawn the crop to a close, at Skeldon the ongoing problems with the functioning of the factory posed difficulties from the start of the crop. It was only in April that rehabilitation on the problematic outbound punt dump was completed.
GuySuCo was able to surpass the 2014 first crop target of 75,000 tonnes, finishing the crop late with just over 80,000 tonnes of sugar. In 2013 the sugar company recorded its worst ever first crop of 48,000 tonnes.
On April 1, prior to a press conference and the disclosure that Skeldon’s power assets had been sold to Skeldon Energy Incorporated (SEI), GuySuCo’s CEO Raj Singh did not take the opportunity to clarify the 2015 annual production target.
He brushed off questions related to the current status of sugar production and the financial crisis the industry is in. He told reporters that a separate press briefing would be held in the near future to respond to the questions. To date there has been no official statement from the sugar company alerting the media of any such planned meeting.
Additionally the state-owned corporation has been stating that a revised Strategic Plan will be released and made available but this is yet to be done.
According to the 2013-2017 Strategic Plan, the annual target for 2015 was supposed to be 312,871 tonnes with a first crop target at 125,148 tonnes, 39,000 tonnes above what was eventually set. Earlier in the year, former Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy had stated that GuySuCo was aiming for annual sugar production of 240,000 tonnes. GuySuCo traditionally sets its two crop targets at a 40:60 ratio which based on the first crop would result in an annual production target of 215,502 tonnes for this year, well below the minister’s 240,000 tonnes projection.
