Lowered sights

The CEO of GuySuCo has just revealed, according to the state-owned Chronicle, that the ‘grinding’ of sugar for the ‘first crop’, has commenced in the Demerara estates of the troubled sugar industry this week. This reverses the age old practice where the Berbice estates would get the ball rolling, followed by those in Demerara.
That practice was not arbitrary but established by the exigencies of the weather: Berbice had a longer and earlier dry season than Demerara. Between the breaks in the two crops (occasioned by the two wet seasons) the sugar factories would undergo maintenance and repairs. During the crops, it was very costly for the factories to have down times, since the start-up processes were very costly.
The announced staggered schedule, however, posited that the reason for the delayed start-up of the Berbice factories was due to ongoing maintenance issues. This is very troubling and demands some further explanation. It had been announced that the new Skeldon Factory would have been undergoing some extensive modifications under the supervision of the South African firm Bosch in the out-of-crop season. But for this to extend up to March 16, as announced, explains why the factory will only grind for four weeks: the next wet season will commence then.
As explained by the president of the sugar union GAWU, Komal Chand, the average grinding time of all the estates this crop will only be some seven weeks as against what he claimed to be the average of 12 weeks. But this claim is on the low side and probably reflects the experience since 2005. In the 1990’s the Berbice estates usually ran for fourteen weeks as opposed to the Demerara estates’ thirteen weeks. With increased rainfall offered as the major reason for lowered production recently, it is rather ironic that the Demerara estates of Enmore and Wales, where the rainfall season is significantly more extended than in Berbice, the factories will be grinding longer.
Komal Chand placed his finger on the crux of the matter of shorter factory grinding times when he suggested that a shortage of canes was the limiting factor. And this brings us to the announced target for the first crop (by Chand) – 71,665 tonnes, within an overall annual target of 260,000 tonnes (Bhim). In our estimation, with the reality of the extremely truncated operating time for the higher producing Berbice operations, we find these targets extremely optimistic.
The availability of canes is only one of the problems, which is not going to be solved by ‘farmers’ canes’ at Uitvlugt as suggested – even one or two years down the line. Even though farmers were supposed to increase their cane production for the new Skeldon Factory and received tremendous assistance from the state, they have yet to deliver even a quarter of their promise. The dynamics and constraints operating in the Demerara/East Bank Essequibo lands supplying Uitvlugt, are no different from those in the Skeldon area.
But what the management of GuySuCo needs to explain is why, when it is cultivating the same 40+ thousand hectares of cane year after year, its production keeps declining. Something is drastically wrong in the fields which, if left unrectified, will pull the whole edifice down.
But the immediate problem will be the exacerbation of the labour shortage occasioned by the very short crop. Take Skeldon, for instance. The workers will only be working four weeks in the first six months of this year. In the ‘out-of-crop’ season, workers are supposed to be given piece work in the fields but this is usually for a pittance that cannot even sustain families at subsistence levels. This will not do.
We are predicting that this year might well see a mass exodus of workers from the sugar industry. Those in charge of this vital cog in our country’s economy need to come up with some drastic remedial action.