Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has announced that the replanting of cane has commenced at the Skeldon Estate that will be crushed at the Albion and Rose Hall factories.
At a meeting held at the Skeldon Estate on Friday, Mustapha stated that they have started to mechanize 5,000 hectares of land at the Skeldon Estate with replanting of canes already started. “We are hoping that by the end of this year we can plant a substantial amount of canes in that 5,000 hectares and also the intention is to complete an additional 5,000 hectares from Skeldon that we will crushed at Albion and Rose Hall factories that have the capacity to crush more canes,” he said.
While this is being done they are working to improve the overall performance of the two factories, he added.
Noting the investments being made by the government to improve the sugar industry, Mustapha said they are hopeful that by the end of the year there will be 60% mechanization of the industry. “We are purchasing new … harvesters. We are outsourcing planting because there is a problem with labour too and what we are doing we are trying to modernize the industry so that we can harvest and plant mechanically,” he said.
On Thursday, sugar workers reported to President Irfaan Ali during an outreach in Crabwood Creek that there were managerial issues in the estates, as such the President ordered Mustapha to meet with sugar workers.
At his meeting, Mustapha urged the workers to speak up about their issues stressing that they would not be victimized. Workers reported that since the closure of the Skeldon Estate those who were relocated to the Albion Estate have been facing a number of issues. According to them, some weeks they are given less than three days of work which affects their ability to properly provide for their families. Mustapha then ordered the estate’s officials present to ensure that the workers receive at least five days’ work. He said that there should be no different treatment between workers from Albion and Skeldon.
Additionally, workers said that they needed travelling allowances as they have to put in extra hours to travel from Skeldon to Albion to work. Mustapha asked the officials to look into this.
Meanwhile, workers attached to the Rose Hall Estate who were also present reported that there was a senior official at the Rose Hall Estate who speaks to them in an unprofessional manner.
Mustapha instructed the GuySuCo officials to meet with the workers today and provide a detailed report of the issues and solutions to him tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mustapha also spoke of issues encountered during the first crop. He said, “We had a number of setbacks, first crop of this year our target was around 16,000 tonnes but we eventually end up with approximately 6,400 tonnes.”
This, he said was due to a number of factors which included El Niño weather drastically affecting the industry.
With a target of 100,000 tonnes this year, Mustapha said, major work was expected to be done in the second crop which will soon commence. “If we work together and we have all the systems in place then I am very optimistic that we can achieve the target of over 100,000 tonnes,” he said.
