Dear Editor
I read an article captioned ‘Sugar will never be competitive under the current trajectory’ by my very good friend Anthony Vieira. I have great respect for Mr. Vieira and I know how passionate he is about the sugar industry, himself having come from a family that is entrenched in the annals of sugar history of this country. And he may have a point when we look at the management of the industry and who or what comprises such management. There is a CEO in place and two Executive Directors, a Technical Director, Factories and an Agriculture Director. As I know it, the Executive Directors are supposed to report to the CEO and lend support to him in his effort to move the industry forward. Sadly, this is not the case and these two gentlemen instead curry favour with whom they think would reward them for lip service, while making grandiose promises to the stakeholder and plummeting the industry into further disaster.
The state of the cultivation and factories and the industry’s performance, reflect their contribution to its development. 60k tonnes of sugar produced in 2023 from four factories, including the mighty Albion, is hardly anything to shout about, especially since 4,700 ha of first crop 2024 canes were brought forward into the second crop of 2023. Despite reaping the first crop of 2024, the Agriculture Director touts to the stakeholder that 73k is in the bag for 2024, looking to reap the 2nd crop of 2024 and then the 1st crop of 2025 to so do. The Operations Director has certainly lived past his relevancy. Allow me to digress a little as it is important to understand where we were, where we are and where we intend to go.
The industry is largely labour dependent and with the advent of the Skeldon Sugar Modernization Plant (SSMP) and the mechanized layout of the fields at Skeldon, the concept of moving towards less labour dependency and more effective and efficient harvesting and grinding operations, was a beautiful one. There were initial problems that plagued the project and these ranged from inefficient drainage to less than desired overall field and factory operations. But, as Dr. Raj Singh (former Chairman and CEO of GuySuCo) stated openly on more than one occasion, the problem was its management. Suffice to say, the current Agriculture Director was General Manager for three years at the SSMP and failed miserably. He was sent packing in mid-2010, much to his consternation then and to this day. Point to posit is that if he couldn’t think strategically to make a new factory and cultivation work then, how can he contribute to the industry in its current dilemma?
What help is he to the current CEO, if any at all?
I was placed at the SSMP from December 2013 to September 2014 while managing Albion simultaneously. During this period, the SSMP brought home the very first crop’s target in 2014 since its commissioning on August 22nd, 2009. Both Albion and Skeldon were set with the support of the management of the company and the stakeholder and production targets were met for both 2014 and 2015 where the industry achieved 218k and 242k tonnes sugar, respectively, with Albion producing over 60k tonnes in 2015. While the APNU/AFC government then laid claim to the overall performance of the industry in 2015, it was the government of President Donald Ramotar that made this possible since the work was put in before the PPP/C demitted office in mid-2015.
As part of the recovery process of the SSMP and its cultivation, a number of works had to be carried out during 2014 to mid-2015. The outboard punt dumper was replaced by an electrical winch type system which could do 35 lifts per hour at 10 tonnes of cane per punt or 350 tonnes per hour, satisfying the rated feed to the factory. The knives were changed, the X001 and X002 belts were changed, the diffuser chain was turned over as it was worn on one side, the dewatering mill rolls were changed, 36 brix hyrometers were replaced as these were missing, all the low grade and high grade baskets were made operable since 50% of these were defunct, 4000 feet of pipes were changed in the process house along with 22 juice and molasses pumps, among others. The water treatment plant was reintegrated with the factory operations as this was bypassed and raw water was being pumped directly into the boilers, resulting in corrosion of the tubes there and as a result of which 700 were replaced in the number 1 boiler and 400, in the number 2 boiler. The last thing left to do was replace the vertical walls in the boilers and which the management post mid-2015, failed to do. Instead, they operated the factory into the wet month of December, 2015, damaging the boilers which resulted in the factory not being able to grind for the first crop 2016. Skeldon never recovered after then up to is closure at the end of 2017.
For the field, the issue of the drainage was addressed and pumps were installed at the back of Block 19 to pump drainage water into the mini conservancy and which had a combined capacity of 450 TPM (tonnes per minute). Another pump was installed at Number 66 to pump directly into the Canje Creek behind Skeldon with a rated capacity of 350 tonnes per minute and which was supposed to drain the Manarabisi Blocks 1 to 4 and the cattle farmers’ lands north of the cultivation. Sadly, this never came into effect since establishing the link from the estate to the pump station was abandoned after the PPP/C lost the elections in 2015.
The estate management embarked on rehabilitation of the field layouts by reintroducing laser levelling and follow up operations after harvesting such as inter-row cultivation to loosen the upper layer of the soil and allow for root room development of the ratooned crop. The full mechanization of the unit was underway and all equipment that were defective, were fixed and put to work. Punts and service equipment to make efficient the harvesting operations and cane delivery to the factory, were fixed/replaced accordingly. Skeldon was on its way to achieving its full potential.
All of the above could not be done without addressing the key problem, that of management. There were many changes that had to be made which included the removal of managers from the project that were not capable of delivering as required. This included transfer of services for those who were not able to cope with the newness of the technology in place and termination of those who were found guilty of malfeasance. An Agriculture Manager had his service terminated for poor performance but was subsequently reinstated when the APNU/AFC came to power, an act of defiance to the ousted PPP/C administration. Said individual is currently responsible for cane farming and has been for several years now and the state of that unit speaks volumes as to his effectiveness.
The reduced state of the industry from seven grinding estates to three by the APNU/AFC, placed the industry at a veritable disadvantage. With seven grinding estates in 2016, production plummeted from 242k tonnes sugar in 2015, to 182k tonnes sugar. With Wales Estate out of the equation in 2017, production dropped to 136k tonnes, the lowest since 1990 where 129k tonnes sugar was produced. When Dr. Davis assumed the role of CEO in mid-2018, there were only three grinding estates under his stewardship, Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt. However, Dr. Davis is one of the leading experts on sugarcane cultivation and sugar production and so the industry stabilized and cane and sugar production started to rise. In 2020, the production of 89k tonnes sugar that Mr. Vieira speaks to, came as a result of sound agronomic and agriculture practices, sadly lacking in the industry today.
The current Agriculture Director’s penchant for his ‘Brilliant to the Basics’ pitch, is not producing what the industry requires to get out of its current dilemma and that is sugarcane and thus sugar. The failing state of the sugar factories is reflective of the slothful approach by the Technical Director, Factories. Together, these two spell disaster and no matter what the CEO does, the industry is doomed to fail since he lacks support from these quarters. The stakeholder has thrown its support behind the CEO but must be brilliant at the basics of management and rid itself of those that are there for the perks, privileges and prestige of yesteryear that they so crave, replacing them with competent individuals who will contribute positively to the overall recovery of the industry. So Mr. Vieira, take it easy on Sase. There is more to the mortar than the pestle.
Sincerely,
Devendra Kumar
