GUYSUCO Exceeds Sugar Production Targets

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) says, it has exceeded its production target for 2015 by over 300 tonnes, after recording 227,727 tonnes on Monday.

GUYSUCO said, that it had set a target of 227,443 tonnes and that, with the three estates still grinding, the figure is likely to increase.

It said, that this would be the first time in 11 years that GUYSUCO has been able to achieve a second crop that produced 146,583 tonnes of the commodity.

“The team of management and workers has done a superb job, and I’m extremely pleased,” said GUYSUCO Chief Executive Officer, Errol Hanoman.

He said, he remains hopeful that the company can meet the 230,000 tonne mark by the end of this year and 150,000 tonnes for the second crop, before the estates complete grinding operations.

He said, he is also hoping that the new figures are “the beginning of the ‘improving trend’ of the corporation, but it can only be maintained if the union, the workers and management work together”.

Officials say, the cash-strapped GUYSUCO requires a tremendous amount of work to reverse its fortunes and Hanoman cited the corporation’s debt as one of the elements on which a lot of focus has to be placed.

“Debt, cost and production… production is only one element to resolving our debt problem,” Hanoman said.

The company’s total liabilities as at July, 2015, were estimated at GUY$82 billion (One Guyana dollar =US$0.008 cents), due largely to decreasing production, rise in production costs and the recent weakening in the European Union (EU) sugar prices.

Over the past five years, the government injected more than GUY$25 billion into the sector, indicating that restructuring was necessary to reverse the decline.

Government is still considering an interim report of a Commission of Inquiry into the operations of GUYSUCO and the sugar industry and, Hanoman said, that going forward, “we need a new industrial climate, and any success in the future will be the management and union working together.”

“We need to find some enlightened strategy going forward,” he added.