Debunking a claim by an APNU MP that sugar had not been produced at the recently-reopened Rose Hall estate, the Agriculture Ministry on Friday said that around 100 tonnes had been churned out between September 24 and Septembers 28
APNU’s Member of Parliament Vinceroy Jordan last week challenged the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, and GuySuCo to release the production amount and cost so far for the Rose Hall Estate which officially returned to grinding last Sunday as he claimed that sugar was not produced at the location since its reopening.
According to Jordan, “The Minister of Agriculture reported during the consideration of the last financial paper in the National Assembly that Rose Hall Estate would be back in operation by the end of September 2023 with him stating further that he is optimistic that GuySuCo would produce some 60,000 metric tons of sugar by the end of the final crop in 2023 of which we await the reality.”
However, while Jordan claimed that Guyanese, especially sugar workers are beginning to wonder “whether it was the best decision of the PPP/C Jagdeo/Ali-led administration since many woes and worries are the daily operational routines of the factory”, workers, their relatives, residents of Canje, and business owners have sung praises publicly of the reopening of the estate which they have said will bring back much needed life to the East Canje Berbice Area.
Jordan however sought to remind the nation that “the PPP/C track record on sugar production in GuySuCo, I will briefly summarize same, with the PPP/C coming into power in 2020 and managing the sugar industry, we saw production significantly reduced from 92,246 metric tons in 2019 to a mere 58,025 metric tons by 2021 and 47,049 tons in 2022.”
He stated, that in 2020, the combined production for three estates was 89,000 metric tons of sugar, while in 2021 the budgeted target was 97,420 metric tons for the two crops to bring the year to a close. However, this target was subsequently revised downwards by the sugar cooperation management and government to 70,000 metric tons “From this point production continued to plummet for the sugar cooperation.”
According to Jordan, the Rose Hall Factory restarted full operations around the 17th of September,2023 however, “to date it has been reported that no sugar has been produced and all the quality checks were proven very poor.”
Based on his information, he claimed that the Rose Hall Estate factory is currently grinding but there is no recorded sugar production, and mechanical failures are many across the factory in addition to the boilers losing steam very often.
“There have been many stoppages in grinding to the point that now there is a complete temporary shutdown. There are major leakages on steam pipes and Centrifugal baskets. Hundreds of thousands if not millions have already been spent on chips and feeder wood for the boiler and the juice is not crystalizing hence, grains are not forming. The factory is presently overheating at various points”, he said.
After the closure of the estate in 2017 by the APNU+AFC government, workers were left in immense economic hardship which also affected the entire Canje community.
Estate Manager, Vijay Goberdhan who was forthcoming about the process had said that some amount of cane was burned the previous week and it was ground at the factory in a trial run where some minor challenges were noticed. As such, they immediately devised a plan to deal with those challenges as they prepared to officially grind September, 24.
Workers and sources at the estate on Friday confirmed that the Rose Hall Estate crushed a total of 884.94 tons of cane and declared a total of 62 tons of sugar for this week. In total since the trial period, the estate would have produced a total of 98 tonnes of sugar.
According to a section of workers, currently there is no bagasse to continue grinding as such the estate management was looking at the possibility of using firewood.
However, Jordan continued that “the workforce is under tremendous pressure stemming from an inexperienced workforce and shortages of technical and field workers.”
In terms of the workforce, over 1,000 workers are currently employed at the Rose Hall Estate with the majority being those who were laid off during its closure carrying with them years of service in their respective fields.
Jordan challenged the Minister of Agriculture and GuySuCo to make full public disclosure of sugar production and operation costs thus far at the Rose Hall Sugar Factory” as he stressed that “all Guyanese must hold the PPP/C Jagdeo/Ali-led Administration for the actions taken at GuySuCo at the expense of billions of taxpayers’ dollars.”
Sources had said that the Ministry of Agriculture would likely release a statement in response to Jordan, however, up to press time this was not done.
In its reply to Jordan on Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture reminded that “after the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, when the PPP/C government returned to office, GuySuCo immediately began working to get the Rose Hall Estate up and running, one of the promises made to the Guyanese people. After an initial evaluation of what was left of the estate and the factory by the APNU+AFC, it was discovered the factory was never decommissioned.”
According to the statement, the factory and all the equipment were left to rot causing billions of dollars in machinery, equipment, and buildings to be permanently destroyed and all to the detriment of the taxpayers of Guyana.
“When speaking about Guyana’s sugar industry the impact of the closure on the village economies should always be remembered. Communities that directly and indirectly depended on the Rose Hall estate experienced economic depression leading to massive social ills among terminated workers, residents, and their families.”
The Ministry confirmed that as of September 28, 2023, Rose Hall Estate has already produced almost 100 MT of sugar, adding that “this is rather commendable considering that the estate was left to the elements for many years under the Granger administration.”
Additionally, the ministry explained that while the factory and the estate have started producing sugar, the management of GuySuCo is still working to bring it to maximum production, something that “we foresee will happen shortly.”
“It is rather appalling but not surprising to hear the blatant and repulsive utterances from members of the Opposition as it relates to the successful reopening of the Rose Hall estate. As a government, we pride ourselves on being able to deliver on each promise made to the Guyanese people.”
The release stated that “With regard to the financial point raised by Mr. Viceroy Jordan, it appears as though the M.P., like his party colleagues, is incapable of conducting proper research and analyzing existing arithmetic” explaining that only approximately $9 billion was spent to “clean up the mess that was left after the previous government used its power, which was fueled by political bias and vindictiveness, to destroy an industry that plays such an important role in Guyana’s socio-economic standing.”
Furthermore, the Ministry said that Jordan “should be ashamed to even speak on the human resource capacity of the Rose Hall estate.”
According to the statement, only recently several high-ranking members of the political opposition supported a strike action that saw workers who were never dismissed demanding severance payments. “If he was concerned about the human resource capacity of the Rose Hall estate, he would’ve encouraged those workers to return to work. How can he support such actions when it was his party that tried to withhold the severance from workers who actually lost their jobs after his party closed the estates leaving so many on the breadline?” the Ministry questioned. The statement added, that injecting new economic life to the well-being of over 1,400 families that directly benefit from the estate with a guaranteed weekly wage cannot be measured in dollars as it said that Mr. Jordan seems to be attempting to do and doing it badly.
