Private cane farmers supplying the Skeldon Sugar Factory are advocating for a reduction in payments to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) for the use of equipment saying that their profits have fallen over the years due to the increasing costs.
George Baijnauth told Stabroek News that since the Skeldon factory was commissioned in 2009, the tonnes of canes needed to produce a tonne of sugar had increased drastically and, as a result, payments to private cane farmers have reduced significantly. He said that this has strained the farmers.
According to Baijnauth, private cane farmers while not contractually obligated to use equipment from the Skeldon Estate, are more or less forced to do so. He said the punt dumps belong to the estate and the farmers need these for the transport of cane and have to pay an extremely high cost for the use of the equipment.
Baijnauth told Stabroek News that for a private farmer with 800 acres, purchasing a mechanical harvester made little sense as it would cost millions with very little immediate return. He related that used small mechanical harvesters can sell for US$250,000 or higher.
The man stated that when the factory was commissioned, GuySuCo claimed that its canes were of a higher quality. He disagreed saying, “Our husbandry maintenance in the fields is better than theirs.”
The man said that he spends over $10 million on weed control alone and private farmers are more cautious in applying fertilizer unlike GuySuCo. He said too that the number of harvesters currently being used by the estate is not enough and as a result, canes on the ground from the private cane farmers are forced into the next crop.
Baijnauth noted that the maturity tests which evaluate the quality of the cane will give an accurate assessment, but if those canes are forced into the next crop due to GuySuCo’s inability to harvest them, there would be a disintegration in quality.
Baijnauth said that the company needs to do more and invest in harvesters that would allow for quicker reaping to preserve the cane juice. “They need as much as four more harvesters, the more cane that is harvested and when it is on time, the better the cane juice. You aren’t losing juice, losing quality,” he said.
GuySuCo currently uses the Puerto Rican Formula which is a system used to calculate the cane per sugar ratio and also determines that private farmers are paid 70 per cent of the net profits of sugar sales. With projected profits of $62,000 (US$300) per tonne of sugar for this crop, many private cane farmers are concerned that their profits will be extremely low.
Baijnauth said that in the years since the US$110 million Skeldon Factory has been operational, many small private cane farmers have been forced to close down, lease their lands or sell.
Another farmer, David Subnauth, told Stabroek News that private cane farming was very difficult for small-scale farmers as the costs are far greater than the earning potential. He said that they cannot afford the costs of production when the private canes are the last to be harvested by GuySuCo resulting in the lowering of the quality of the cane. This leaves private cane harvesters at the mercy of the state-owned corporation.
Meanwhile, the PPP yesterday issued a statement of support for “striking private cane farmers” of the Upper Corentyne who the party stated, were protesting the removal of a 30 per cent reduction in payment for the year’s crop supplied to GuySuCo.
A GuySuCo representative called the party’s statement erroneous saying that the Puerto Rican payment method was being misrepresented.
