Dear Editor,
It was a kind gesture by the former CEO of GuySuCo and current Ambassa-dor for the EU, Mr. Sasenarine Singh, to find the time from his expected busy schedule to expansively speak on his tenure in the sugar industry for the period late 2020 to early 2024, and to chronologically provide the details on the discoveries and opening of Rose Hall. He focused on his detailed letters of November 16th responding to mine of November 15th, and on November 17th on the original state of Rose Hall estate and spared no moment to boast of his managerial exploits in bringing back the estate to its feet. All these letters were carried on SN on stated dates.
Since Mr. Singh is addressing his performance in the public domain, he may wish to explain a cumulative loss he incurred as the CEO of approximately $25 billion for the period 2021 to 2023, and the cost of production an average of US$1.15 per pound for the same period, when his best-selling price was US$0.34 per pound. The average annual production for this same period was 57,600 tonnes of sugar.
The former CEO categorized the 2021 flood as the Great Flood, biblical memory of Noah and the Great Flood. One wonders what the flood of late 2004, early 2005 on the lower East Coast Demerara would be categorized as, which was above 4 feet on every household that marooned every resident in their home: maybe the Mother of all Floods. There is no doubt that the rainfall in late 2020 and early 2021 was more than normal, but that referred flood at Albion was greatly exacerbated by poor water management on the estate and having almost half of its mechanical drainage pumps out of order.
I previously read former GuySuCo Director Tony Vieira expounding and criticizing the unpreparedness of Albion estate to mitigate the effects of the expected annual December/January rainfall. Singh should explain why Rose Hall estate, contiguous to Albion, was not equally affected, and so were the other estates, Blairmont and Uitvlugt, where the distribution of the rainfall was almost the same.
Having not seen Singh’s 2021 – 2026 Strategic Plan that ambitiously seek to produce 130,000 tonnes by 2026, I was not far off when I stated that 140,000 tonnes should be the ideal production level. Whilst volume of production is one side of the equation, the other side must be the cost of production (CoP). What was the CoP in that Strategic Plan?
In his November 16th letter, Singh skillfully extracted himself from 2024 though he was at the helm of the company for the duration of the 1st crop of this year that exhibited the lowest 1st crop performance in the history of the sugar industry – 7,000 tonnes sugar. He should explain his decision to use almost 3,500 hectares of canes from the 1st crop 2024 and bring it forward to the 2nd crop 2023 in producing that 61,000 tonnes in 2023 that he boasted about. The consequence of that decision was the meagre production of 7,000. Maybe, he knew he would be offered a top diplomatic posting to Europe that he exploited the 1st crop 2024 canes to embellish production in 2023.
Singh should provide financial details on the cost to harvest and process that 3,500 hectares of canes, and to explain the astronomically high tonnes cane per tonne sugar ratio of almost 18.00 to process those canes, which under normal circumstance should have been 12.00 maximum. It cost the company to use 6 tonnes more of canes to produce 1 tonne of sugar.
Singh wrote glowingly on his agronomic knowledge of growing a sugar cane crop, as such he should well know that what he grew and nurtured in 2023 would determine the sugar crop in 2024, which he optimistically projected to be 70,000 – 75,000 tonnes sugar. He has now shied away from the present state where GuySuCo now is struggling to produce 50,000 this year, and threw the gauntlet over to the Chairman, Ramraj and the new CEO, Paul Cheong. Assuming production is 50,000 tonnes this year, the average for 2021-2024 would be 55,700. Singh’s strategic plan to produce 130,000 in 2026 is clearly out of sync, because it would be pure magic to increase production by 74,000 in the next 2 years.
Editor, in my November 15th letter I condemned the previous government for shuttering Rose Hall estate, and would be the first to commend the current government for the reopening of the estate that has brought back life to the communities of this estate, albeit I feel that a more prudent decision should have been to resuscitate the cultivation and expand the capacity of Albion factory to 220 tonnes cane per hour and have an amalgamation of Albion and Rose Hall’s cultivations.
Singh, in his long letter, akin to an epistle, lyrically waxed on his and his team’s involvement in charting a strategic direction of the company, much of which would have been better left for his autobiography. He, however, disclosed that $9 billion was spent on the reopening of Rose Hall estate, half of which could have been spent to rehabilitate Rose Hall and Albion cultivations, and expand Albion factory that could have guaranteed 75,000 tonnes sugar per year.
Since Singh is presently “starting a conversation with Guyana” he would do well to let the nation know what is happening at Rose Hall that this year so far, with just a few weeks remaining before the year’s production ends, that only about 40% of its annual target of 12,000 tonnes would be achieved. Editor, I would urge Singh to continue this conversation, and you granting him publication space, so that the nation could continue to be edified on what happened to the sugar industry from 2021 – 2023 when the government pumped almost $40 billion (budgetary allocations and other parliamentary approvals) in it and incurred a loss of $25 billion, and then when this year has ended will tell us what has happened that only 50,000 could be produced.
Sincerely,
Raj Parmanand