The enduring weaknesses of a sugar industry that continues to be besieged as much by political controversy as by chronic underperformance are among some of the key features of the 2021 Ministry of Finance Mid-Year Report made public recently by Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh.
While the Report alludes to an eye-catching 14.5% real growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the first half of 2021, it is the repetition of what has become the routinely poor performance of the country’s sugar industry that is the main attention-getter in the Report given what, over the years, has become the industry’s overwhelming socio-political significance.
Last week, Dr. Singh delivered the not unexpected news of sugar’s decline, by 22.4% during a first half of this year in which it produced a mere 29,650 tonnes of sugar.