Guyana’s sugar production continues to plummet

More than 660 hours of downtime at all of the three remaining factories in the sugar belt has resulted in the second crop production plummeting, a situation which the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) said is a “major bugbear”.
GAWU on Sunday said that the Albion Estate factory in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) is experiencing its worse performance in the longest time. In fact, the Union noted that the problems at that location are so acute that the Corporation has lost some three weeks of operations during this crop as a result of the breakdowns, which amounts to some 420 hours of downtime.
Meanwhile, the situation is not much better at the other factory locations with breakdown hours during this crop reaching 122 and 119 at Blairmont, Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), and Uitvlugt, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), respectively.
According to GAWU, the performance of the factories, as it has lamented before, brings into question the efficacy of the industry’s factory operations department.
“That department’s skills, we gathered, has been augmented in recent times as several new recruits were engaged. We hasten to wonder what have been their collective contributions in assuaging the situation and trying to bring some semblance to the difficulties that are being faced at this time. The situation for the Union and the workers are very much concerning and disconcerting at the same time,” the missive stated.
The Union went on to point out that this situation has been especially hard for sugar workers. It noted that the poor reliability of the factories has seen workers on many days not being offered work.
On the other hand, GAWU said that this situation has caused it to re-look at previous estimates regarding this year’s sugar production. Last month, based on the sugar industry’s performance, the Union had estimated that production until week-ending December 20 would see GuySuCo producing 67,653 tonnes sugar out of a 75,843-tonne target.
At that time, GAWU said it expected that Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt would have produced 34,187 tonnes, 20,450 tonnes and 13,016 tonnes of sugar respectively. However, the Union noted that recent performances have caused it to review its estimates.
In fact, the Union noted that as of November 20, sugar production experienced a total deficit of 27,486 tonnes. This was after Albion produced 22,864 against a target of 39,543 tonnes; Blairmont producing 13,776 against a 23,284 target, and Uitvlugt producing 11,627 against a target of 13,016.
GAWU pointed out that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has disclosed that Uitvlugt Estate has sufficient canes to produce an additional 500 tonnes of sugar and its target has been revised.
Bearing in mind the most recent performance, the Union has now estimated that the industry’s second crop production by December 20, will reach 60,236 tonnes sugar with a total deficit of 16,107 tonnes.
This will see an estimated sugar production at Albion of 28,643 tonnes against a target of 39,543 tonnes and at Blairmont, 18,077 against a 23,284-tonne target. Uitvlugt is expected to meet its target of 13,516 tonnes.
Meanwhile, the sugar industry’s poor performance also means that the canes available to harvest during the second crop cannot be harvested, and as a result will now have to be reaped until next year.
“The cutting of canes beyond their maturity is almost a taboo in the industry as those canes tend to experience declining returns. Moreover, such canes are also difficult for workers to harvest as they require additional efforts by them,” the Union underscored.
Only last month, GAWU along with another Union, the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) — met with GuySuCo officials after the alarmingly low rates of sugar production came to their attention.
At that time, the Union said it received information that days of work were lost to various maladies that brought the factory’s operations to a halt.
Recognising that the sugar company’s capital programme has been hamstrung by lack of finances, the workers’ Union had pointed out that GuySuCo would have received a G$30 billion bond and, therefore, funds should have been or should be utilised from this source to safeguard sugar production in Guyana and the jobs of the remaining thousands of sugar workers.
This situation comes on the heels of sugar workers being snubbed by the Government, which recently announced salary increases for the public sector.
In fact, Agriculture Minister Noel Holder told this newspaper that GuySuCo does not have funds to facilitate a pay hike for its workers.