As government forges ahead with its plan to revive the sugar estates across the country, $2 billion has is to be allocated to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) this year to undertake critical capital works, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh announced yesterday when he presented the proposed 2021 budget to the National Assembly.
Singh said that the corporation can now concentrate on a turnaround of the industry with the support from the PPP/C government.
He announced that the new board of directors and management team are working together to reboot the industry to make it fit for purpose for sugar and value-added opportunities, including diversification into non-traditional areas.
The minister pointed out that they are currently engaged in developing a master plan, estate by estate, to guide the future of the industry.
Under the plan, GuySuCo, which is a traditional bulk sugar producer, is expected to shift its attention to producing packaged sugar on the local and international market and aim to quadruple sales over the next five years.
The Blairmont Packaging Plant, he said, can be expanded with three new packaging machines and an expansion of the storage bond so that inventory can be available at all time to service the international market, while the Enmore Packaging Plant could be expanded to five operational packaging lines.
Chief Executive Officer of GuySuCo Sasenarine Singh had told this publication that currently $300 million is being spent to upgrade the Enmore packaging plant to boost its capacity and production level. He explained that with a workforce of 205 persons, the plant is currently producing 9,000 metric tonnes of packed sugar and by the end of 2021, with rehabilitation work, the plant will produce 15,000 metric tonnes of sugar.
Before operations restarted in October, the CEO said that the plant and the estate resembled a scrap yard as the previous government failed to decommission the factories. This, he noted, allowed for rapid deterioration of the machinery.
Turning his attention to the grinding at sugar estates, the Finance Minister said that targeted investment needs to be made at Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt.
He pointed out that there needs to be investment in cane cultivation to ensure ratoons that are currently over ten years old will be replaced over a five-year period at the rate of 20% per annum. This, he pointed out, will help to revert the standard procedure of replanting every five years.
“…More than 60% of the access roads are in a deplorable state, and more than 50% of the fleet of land preparation and tillage machines were allowed to deteriorate beyond repair. Additionally, more than 40 % of the cane transport fleet, especially the punts, were left to deteriorate to the point of disuse,” the minister further highlighted.
He stressed too that the government is currently assessing the damage at the shuttered Rose Hall, Skeldon and Wales estates and the cost to rehabilitate these estates to make them profitable cost centres. According to the minister, the administration is seeking to introducing public-private partnerships, agro-industrial and agro-energy opportunities, and pursuing product diversification, and retraining where necessary to make the industry viable and contribute to the wellbeing of rural Berbice and Demerara.
Singh also said sugar saw a decline in production by 3.7% for the previous fiscal year but is expected to grow by 9.6 %.
The minister pointed out that the restructuring of GuySuCo, alongside the recapitalisation of sugar estates will position the sector for improved production and productivity in 2021 and over the medium-term.
Within the last year $7 billion has been pumped into the recapitalisation of the sector.
In the emergency budget presented in September, $3 billion was allocated to corporation. An additional $2 billion subsidy was provided to the organisation at the end of 2020. Prior to that, the David Granger administration had periodically released money to the corporation.
