Sugar production this year is targeted to grow by 4.8 percent to 242,287 metric tonnes while rice production is forecast to drop.
Presenting budget 2016 to the National Assembly yesterday, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan said that the sugar industry returned a creditable performance in 2015, with production growing by 6.9 percent to 231,145 metric tonnes. “Though this level of production is still below the average achieved in the previous decade, the industry is showing encouraging signs of recovery. This, no doubt, can be attributed to new management and the measures taken to increase efficiency and productivity,” he asserted.
“Given its encouraging performance in 2015, sugar production is targeted to grow by 4.8 percent to 242,287 metric tonnes,” he said. Government is planning to inject $9 billion into the Guyana Sugar Corporation this year.
In relation to rice, the minister said that in spite of the uncertainty that prevailed in the rice industry, recorded output was 687,784 metric tonnes, an increase of 8.3 percent. The premature end of the Venezuelan barter market under PetroCaribe, which accounted for 37.5 percent of the volume of rice exported in 2014, created great turmoil for both rice farmers and millers, he said.
He added that government was proactive in its assistance to the rice industry – aiding in the search for new markets and meeting payments to farmers for rice shipped to Venezuela, which could not have been made from the PetroCaribe Fund.
“Not unexpectedly, the projection for rice output has been tempered as the industry continues its efforts to synchronize production and existing stocks with domestic consumption and external markets. As a result, production is expected to decline by 8.4 percent from the 2015 level to 630,028 metric tonnes,” the minister said.
He noted that last year, the livestock sub-sector grew by 5.8 percent, double the rate achieved in the previous year, while the ‘other crops’ sub-sector grew by 2 percent. On the other hand, negative growth was returned by the fisheries sub-sector, 7.2 percent; and forestry, 16.2 percent.
For this year, the Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry sector is projected to grow marginally by 0.3 percent. Jordan said that the ‘other crops’ sub-sector is anticipated to grow by a further 2.5 percent and livestock, 0.5 percent.
For the first time since 2012, the fisheries sub-sector is expected to record an increase in output, growing by 1.5 percent. “This sub-sector will require greater policy and management intervention if it is to realise its potential. The forestry sub-sector is estimated to grow by 2.5 percent with an output of 392,469 cubic metres of timber harvested,” Jordan said.
