Diversification at the Wales sugar estate will entail land for displaced workers to engage in cane and other types of farming according to GuySuCo Chairman Dr Clive Thomas who yesterday defended the plan to close the estate noting that the industry was producing the sweetener at 45 US cents per pound while being paid a third of that.
“…as Chairman of GuySuCo I state, without qualification that, in the case of the intended Wales estate closure, the GuySuCo Board and its management team have exercised `their bounden duty’ and responsibility to secure a better future for the industry, without any outside instruction or direction, whatsoever. In deciding to close the Wales estate in 2017, our aim is to promote the greater long-term good of the entire workforce, the industry, and all its stakeholders, taking into account fully, the “dire straits”, in which GuySuCo has found itself in during recent decades,” Thomas wrote in his Sunday Stabroek column yesterday.
Government last month announced its intention to close the Wales Sugar Estate, the first major decision it has taken on the beleaguered industry which has seen slumping production over the last decade and