Dear Editor,
Mr Vishnu Bisram’s letter discussing shortage of labour (among other issues) as a contributing factor to Guyana’s failing sugar industry is quite interesting. (SN’s letters, Feb 10th).
Shortage of labour has never been an unsolvable problem. Just read up the stories on Israel’s recruiting labour from Thailand (upwards of 50,000) to grow and package fruits and vegetables in Israel. NYT’s reporters went to those workers’ remote villages in Thailand and reported on how remittances have improved life in those villages. This is one of the takeaways from the real story: migrant workers’ suffering from the ongoing Israel-Palestine war.
Shortage of labour? No problem. Go recruit them from another country that has surplus labour.
Another point: Mechanization has not really been tried. They say machines to harvest sugarcane are too heavy for Guyanese soft bagasse soil. Smaller sized machines have now been built. Mechanization may have been only one factor in the problem of reducing cost of production.
Has anybody noticed? Sugar prices on the world market have gone up lately.
There must be a serious debate on Sugar. It is either viable or not viable. You can’t subsidize sugar year-after-year to the tune of billions of dollars – and the industry keeps losing money. Makes no sense to keep doing sugar just for the sake of keeping 18,000 folks employed. Retrain workers for other jobs. A healthy, innovative economy creates new industries all the time – and workers acquire new skills and transition to other kinds of jobs.
I know GuySuCo’s CEO Sasenarine Singh very well. He is very qualified in Economics, Finance, Management – and has had some experience in turning around troubled businesses in England. He has been on the job for four years now. It is time for him to be summoned to the appropriate Parliamentary Committee to give a full account of the status of the sugar industry.
D-day is now. The government cannot keep pumping taxpayers’ money to the tune of billions of dollars each year and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
