Dear Editor,
I refer to your issue of 11th November 2024, re the sad position at Albion factory. Essentially your article states that you have been told that the factory is having problems with the poor quality of the cane. To explain why, I crave the indulgence of your readers, since to explain what is going on, I must give a little technical background. Editor, for centuries the sugar cane plant was bred to be a one year growth plant i.e. an annual plant, As such it has three stages of growth over that period, first a slow three-month germinating period, which occurs soon after planting or harvesting, then at 3 months it enters its boom period of growth to around 7 months, then the last 4 months (7 months to 12 months) it’s the ripening phase. During this period the total solids within the stalk consolidate to make sucrose sugar. All living organisms has an S or Sigmoid shaped growth curve, an initial phase which is usually slow i.e. the bottom of the S, then it enters a boom period of growth which is almost a straight line upwards, then it levels off at the top of the S.
It is my information that Albion has already harvested close to 3,000 hectares of cane from next year’s first crop. This is cane which has not entered the ripening stage of its growth cycle since they are reaping it within its 6 to 7 months growth period. In effect they are reaping the 2025 first crop. The people of Guyana were told that their sugar industry [because despite what they think that industry is owned by all of the people in this country] will produce 100,000 tonnes this year. Editor, at the beginning of the year to make a budget for the industry one must first decide how much sugar you are going to make in that year; then having come up with your potential earnings from that production, a budget is created for works relating to growing, harvesting and processing the crop plus upgrading and other routine maintenance to ensure that the assets of the company are kept at a high standard.
After saying that they will be making 100,000 tonnes this year, now 11 months later and after they have spent all of their budgeted money on harvesting, and grinding the same cane twice in one year now at literally the 11th hour, they are telling us that they will only be making around 30-35,000 tonnes. AND they have harvested a substantial amount of next year’s canes. Editor, to harvest next year’s cane, which is immature cane, will inevitably take a lot more to produce sugar, since inevitably its juice purity at 6-7 months old will be extremely poor! In the industry we had one word for this practice. Rape! But no one will be held accountable to the people, because the people will not demand it, they refuse to speak with one voice as a nation. That has been our major catastrophe as a nation, holding us back from real development.
Sincerely,
Tony Vieira
