…to tap into expertise of India, Guatemala & Dominican Republic
As the Guyana Government seeks to modernise the sugar industry and restore it to a state of profitability, President Dr Irfaan Ali said efforts are underway to establish a nursery with the aim of enhancing the cultivation of sugarcanes.
The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is pegged to produce some 60,000 tonnes of sugar by the end of 2023 with the aim of increasing this to 100,000 tonnes in the new year.
But according to the Head of State, one of the greatest challenges within the sector is the cultivation of the sugarcane plants. To this end, he noted that the country will be tapping into the expertise of bilateral partners to help with expanding its cultivation.
“You can’t have sugar if you don’t have cane and we’re now having a massive replanting exercise. As a matter of fact, we have been discussing with India, Guatemala and the DR (Dominican Republic) on having scientific [assistance] in helping us to have the right variety and to create a nursery that would allow us to expedite the process of having more of the seedlings available to have the cultivation expanded rapidly,” President Ali stated during his remarks at the 75th Anniversary of the Enmore Martyrs on Friday.
Earlier this year, the Guyanese leader disclosed that there has been increased international interest in helping Guyana to improve the operations of GuySuCo. This includes India, which has long offered technical expertise to enhance the local sugar industry, including the use of tissue culture to get better cane yields.
More recently, Guatemala also expressed interest in lending support for sugar and GuySuCo. Guatemala is the second-largest exporter of sugar in Latin America, and the fifth-largest exporter in the world.
Another Latin American nation, the Dominican Republic, has also indicated its willingness to provide assistance to Guyana’s sugar industry. In fact, just last month, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader led a massive delegation, of both state and private sector officials, to Guyana for a one-day.
During engagements with the visiting team, President Ali pointed out that Guyana has a number of sugar estates for which the Government is looking for partners to invest and bring them up to viability.
Nevertheless, the Head of State is hopeful that the expanded cultivation will be ready by the end of this year when the Rose Hall Estate is slated to be reopened and the packaging plant at the Albion Estate will be completed – both in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
With the ongoing efforts to modernise and mechanise GuySuCo, President Ali posited that Government will soon be in a better position to analyse the next three to five years of the sugar industry in order to make the right decisions that are critical and key in advancing the prospects of this important economic sector.
President Ali made these remarks in response to General Secretary of the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), Aslim Singh, who lauded workers, GuySuCo management and other stakeholders for supporting the industry to, for the first time in years, surpass its target. However, Singh used the opportunity to call on the Head of State to facilitate greater dialogue between the sugar workers along with their unions and the management of GuySuCo to address certain issues.
The Guyanese leader said his Government welcomes such an engagement between these stakeholders in order to foster further collaborations and reposition priorities to strengthen the sector.
The GAWU official went onto lauded the sugar workers, GuySuCo management and other stakeholders for supporting the industry to, for first time in years, surpass its target. He noted that the reopening of the Rose Hall Estate later this year is yet another major step in erasing the willful damage inflicted on the industry by the former Coalition government.
Singh added that the current progress of the sugar industry now is linked to the sustained investment by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government in the sugar sector as well as greater collaboration between the unions and the sugar company in recent months.
“These, we believe, are paying dividends,” the GAWU General Secretary noted.
