Dear Editor,
We live in a globalized world. If Guyana no longer has the comparative advantage in sugar production, it has no choice but to find alternative crops to produce. The bottom line is that displaced workers have to find alternative means of making a livelihood.
And, government has a responsibility to help them make this transition.
Government cannot continue to produce sugar at 42 cents a pound and sell it for 16 cents. Governments and workers around the world have to be nimble and ready to adjust ‒ find new technologies, make new products, develop marketing skills, raise investment capital. That is the definition of living in a globalized world. If you fail at this you will perish.
Government has to send teams of trained professionals to explain their plans to help workers to transition to new crops/new means of finding alternative gainful employment.
One of the scandalous and ridiculous things going on in Guyana is that some folks want to continue producing sugar. They say if you pump millions of dollars to build a new factory at Wales to make sugar, or if you mechanize cane-cutting you will reduce the cost of production enough to make sugar production viable. This is a palpably false argument.
There is no way you can close the gap between cost of production and selling price.
Find a new crop. Lease or sell the lands to the workers. Government cannot continue to subsidize sugar production every year with no end date in sight.
Too many educated Guyanese have written to the SN in the last few weeks, all calling for transition and diversification away from sugar. Put them to work; explain the process to the workers, let the policy-planners go to work to create a blueprint for the transition. Allay the fears and anxieties of the workers.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
