Dear Editor,
As Managers directly responsible for the three (3) sugar-producing Estates of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) we wish to clarify several grave inaccuracies about the operations at Albion/Port Mourant, Blairmont and Uitvlugt, that were put forward in a letter dated October 11, 2021 (published in the Stabroek News) and penned by one Rajendra Bissessar. It is vital that accuracy in the public space is preserved on every occasion, especially at this delicate juncture where the sugar industry is recovering from the worst flood in our recorded history for the Berbice area.
In December 2020, each of us was asked by the Chief Executive Officer to join a process under his leadership, where we collectively built a 5-year Strategic Plan for the industry. That process then migrated into a collaborative effort within a sub-committee of the Board of Directors. The end product was a Board submission of a 5-year Strategic Plan and this was approved in March 2021 along with the Annual Procurement Plan for the industry. So as sugar estate leaders, we have a Strategy and we are working on the Strategy. Unfortunately, the 2021 floods came and have caused the entire industry to re-look at itself intimately especially around the need for greater mechanization on the fields. This is a work in progress today.
Collectively, we have 87 years of service to the sugar industry and we support the direction of the industry under the current Chief Executive Officer. We remain convinced if it was not for these floods of 2021 and our inability to renew our tillage fleet periodically, this industry would have been in a much stronger position on the road to cash neutrality under his leadership. Unfortunately, as we currently review this plan within, for a further presentation to the Board of Directors, to accommodate the damage from the flood, the evidence is clear that the industry has lost as much as 18 months from the original timelines.
As the active operational leaders on the grinding estates, we witnessed major periods of under-investment in the industry especially over the last 5 years, save and except for the last 12 months, when some G$4.3 billion in capital equipment was financed by the current Government of Guyana. As sugar professionals, we are grateful for these investments since September 2020 and will continue to use these investments to advance the prospects in the industry.
When we were part of the process that prepared the Draft Strategic Plan in December 2020, we found that 70% of the fleet of tillage tractors in the industry had an average age greater than 8 years. This situation highlights that these tillage tractors are at the end of their useful economic life considering the arduous conditions on the sugar fields of Guyana. However, because of a lack of finance, these aged tillage tractors could not have been renewed in a timely manner (both in 2020 and 2021) leaving the industry with no choice but to keep them operational; albeit with increasing inefficiency. The longer it takes to assemble the resources to renew these tillage tractors, the greater the inability to redevelop the fields to make a tangible impact on the Tonnes of Cane/Tonnes of sugar (TC/TS).
In the same vein, anyone who is aware of the sugar cultivation process will know that it all starts with land preparation. The records will illustrate that the entire land preparation process has been halted since early March 2021 because of the unseasonal and extended rainfall which every Guyanese experienced. The extended rainfall was so brutal to the sugar industry that on some Estates, the standing canes found themselves under water for more than 65 days even though some 4.5 million tonnes of water was removed from the land daily. This situation has resulted in a mortality rate of 31% of the standing canes at the largest estate – Albion /Port Mourant that produces some 50% of the annual production in 2020. The arithmetic speaks for itself, unless you are a stranger to the truth.
In accordance with the Study of Drainage Outfalls, it is recognised that “the depth of submergence, within the range arising from rainstorms, does not affect the crop yield, but the period of submergence affects the weight of cane/sucrose yield (TC/TS) ratio and reduces the value of the crop”. It should also be noted that the percentage reductions in yield on the field (TCH) are also directly influenced by the time of submergence and it was determined that the losses became very steep after six (6) days of submergence. The empirical evidence shows that there is a 25% reduction in the value of the crop after six (6) days of submergence (Halcrow & Ministry of Works, Hydraulics & Supply, 1973). Further, the Sugar Research Institute of Australia, in a publication called “Managing flood-damaged cane” stated that the “cane may suffer around 15-20% yield loss after 5 days of submergence, between 30% and 60% yield loss after 10 days and between 37% and 100% yield loss after 15 days.” Therefore, the science is clear as to what should have been the expected outcome (greater levels of mortality of the standing cane and a greater deterioration in cane yield and quality, which directly affects the TC/TS).
For the record, the year to date TC/TS for 2021 was 13.44 across the industry. For the reading public, this means it takes an average of thirteen and a half metric tonnes of sugar cane to make one metric tonne of sugar. TC/TS have a direct correlation with the sucrose content of the sugar cane. What has been observed is that as a result of the excessive rainfalls, the high saturation in the soil and the flood conditions on most of the fields between March 2021 and mid-August 2021; the outcome was a situation where the sugar cane plant was not allowed to sufficiently ripen or store sucrose. Rather, the sugar cane plant survived at the expense of the sucrose from within the stalk because it could not access food from the soil due to the heavy saturation.
We trust that our written intervention has cleared the air on some of the issues raised.
Yours faithfully,
Threbhowan Shiwprasad – Estate Manager – Albion
Hutton Griffith – Estate Manager – Blairmont
Yudhister Mana – Estate Manager – Uitvlugt
