The Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) Uitvlugt Estate has suffered breakdowns amounting to some 204 hours for its first crop.
According to a Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) release yesterday, Uitvlugt Estate, which is now in the fifth week of its seven-week first crop as at Friday, March 13, suffered breakdowns aggregating to some 204 hours for the first crop. The union explained that the hours lost because of breakdowns is equivalent to more than a week and a half of operations.
GAWU disclosed that Uitvlugt’s sugar production as of last weekend stood at 3,559 tonnes and according to the Corporation’s crop schedule, Uitvlugt, at that point in time, ought to have produced 4,837 tonnes sugar. The union opined that “the estate [Uitvlugt], in all likelihood, will not realise its targeted production in the scheduled crop weeks.”
It added that sugar production for the industry, as at last weekend, stood at 10,819 tonnes with Albion producing 3,642 tonnes of sugar as against the 5,670 tonnes targeted. At Blairmont, sugar production was 3,638 tonnes sugar as against the 4,662 tonnes targeted. The industry’s total production, at last weekend, the union stated, was in deficit by 4,330 tonnes sugar.
The release said that on many occasions, GAWU has had to “lament the functioning of the three factories under the charge of GuySuCo.” It stated that a few weeks ago, it did warn that not much was being done to really improve the reliability of the factories, adding that at a subsequent engagement with GuySuCo, the corporation “sought to express critical views regarding what the Union had said, though it could not have offered, from our perspective, any credible rationale for its position.”
The union expressed dismay at the denials of GuySuCo while stating, “We cannot help but feel there is hardly anything really done to address what clearly, in our view, is a situation growing more serious by the day.” Accordingly, it feels compelled to ask, “Where is the industry heading?”
