The future of GuySuCo

The Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece spoke on the seventh day of every month to the throng gathered from far and wide for answers to their questions. These, however, were worded so ambiguously that their “meaning” depended as much on the interpreting hearers as on the words themselves. But for the faithful, the words were never doubted. President David Granger goes one better than the Delphic Oracle by speaking once yearly to a “horde” of reporters; but his answers are just as ambiguous and demanding of interpretation.
Take his answer to questions on the future of the Government of Guyana-owned GuySuCo, which had closed four of seven “grinding” estates. This threw 5,700 sugar workers out of jobs directly from the corporation, and another 2,000 from farmers supplying sugar cane to the closed factories. Said President Granger oracularly, “GuySuCo is important to us. We have said that we are not shutting down the sugar industry; it is being reformed.”
Technically, of course, he is correct. But the rump sugar industry is being run in a manner which guarantees its death knell is only a matter of time. Set a target of 147,000 tonnes this year, it is now certain that not even 100,000 tonnes will be produced; and at a higher cost than that which was used to justify closing the three estates. GuySuCo will still be losing money on every tonne of sugar it produces. Ancillary income such as supplying bagasse to the Skeldon Co-Gen Plant is now gone, since Skeldon was shuttered. The same is true of the supply of molasses to DDL, which have been forced to import this raw material for their production of their world-recognised rums, which bring in foreign currency.
But all of this does not matter to his partisans like PM Nagamootoo, who thought he had wrung the concession not to close the industry – meaning to make it viable as it was comprised — before the AFC went into a coalition with APNU in 2015. He did not realise the President speaks oracularly. But the President’s statement is of little comfort to the sugar workers of Berbice, where two estates were closed. To them, the President spoke with a “forked tongue” to trick them into supporting the coalition. This became even more blatant after the recommendation of the Government’s high-priced Commission of Inquiry — that the entire industry be stabilised and brought to a point of sale.
The President also oracularly emphasised that “GuySuCo must be run as a business.” He said: “There has been a tendency or a temptation in the past to put persons (on GuySuCo’s Board of Directors) who might be socially prominent; but this is a business, this is an international industry, we have to compete with other sugar producers.”
What does this mean? In terms of GuySuCo as a business entity, the Government’s spokespersons, especially Audreyanna Thomas, PRO of GuySuCo, had emphasised the “GuySuCo as a business” like a mantra.
More recently, after appointing a new CEO, the Ministry of Agriculture explained: “This approach is guided by GuySuCo’s new ‘Sustainable Business Model,’ which focuses on achieving a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) – economic/financial, environmental and social.” The question, of course, to which Granger’s oracular pronouncement must be subjected, is what happened to the “social” aspect of the Triple Bottom Line when the decision was made to place 7,700 workers on the breadlines? Has the President not placed those Guyanese in a position where they are forced to “lime on street corners” and “look for handouts” – practices which the President frowns on?
But that portion of his oracular statement — that running a “business” is not compatible with placing “socially prominent” persons on its Board — was given an interesting interpretation by the state-run Chronicle. Its headline advised: “Pres. Granger steers clear from bourgeoisie-dominated board.” “Bourgeoisie-dominated”? This is quite redolent of the 1970s Burnhamite rhetoric when they nationalised the sugar industry “for the people of Guyana”.
Will we now have a “working class” GuySuCo Board?