Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder has said that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is no longer under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture; in fact it now falls under the ambit of the Ministry of Finance.
The Minister offered this comment while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the National Dialogue on the thirty-fifth Regional Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean and Accountability of the FAO’s stewardship workshop held at Regency Suites, Brickdam, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has reported.
“GuySuCo is vested in National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL). NICIL falls under the Ministry of Finance. In short, GuySuCo has been removed from the ambit of agriculture to the Ministry of Finance,” Minister Holder stated.
Further, the minister explained that the decision to reopen two estates temporarily has nothing to do with government’s regret at its earlier decisions, but rather a matter of the Special Purpose Unit (SPU) which is the agency established by NICIL to pursue the privatisation of the sugar estates, exercising its options.
“It has nothing to do with government per se. We have been informed that under the previous administration some big companies were interested in taking over the sugar industry. The government apparently didn’t go along with that, so these companies pulled out. Some of them are expressing interest. In short, it probably wouldn’t be for sugar but perhaps canned cane juice or something of that sort. I believe the Special Purpose Unit [SPU] thinks that if they attempt to divest an estate that is functional they will get a better deal than if it’s not,” Minister Holder explained.
In May 2017, the Government announced plans to close the Enmore and Rose Hall Sugar Estates and sell the Skeldon sugar factory, reduce the annual production of sugar, and take on the responsibility of managing the drainage and irrigation services offered by GuySuCo.
