Albion/Port Mourant Estates get vital capital equipment

THE AGRICULTURE MINISTRY THURSDAY DONATED THREE EXCAVATORS to
the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) to help boost production of the sweetener for the
local and export markets.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, last week commissioned the three hydraulic long tail
excavators at GUYSUCO’s La Bonne Intention Estate (LBI), East Coast Demerara, head office.
The equipment are have been identified for the Albion\Port Mourant estates in East
Berbice/Corentyne (Region Six) to assist with their rehabilitation plans.
“I want to recommit the Government’s position that we are working aggressively, working in a
phased plan to reopen the closed sugar estates,” Minister Mustapha said.
Mustapha reminded that historically, the fortunes of the local economy and Guyanese, were
inextricably linked to sugar production and export.
“Sugar has made the most contribution. All the wealth we have today, is as a result of sugar
(and) GUYSUCO. GUYSUCO use to be the single, largest employer of persons in Guyana,” the
government official recalled.

University of Guyana lecturer, Dr Thomas Singh noted in his work, ‘Study of the socio-
economic impact of the closure of GUYSUCO sugar estates on sugar estate workers’ inter
alia, “Though the economics of sugar eventually led to consolidations – to the extent that by 1967 there
were 18 estates and ultimately only 11 estates at the time of nationalization in 1976 – sugar remained the
mainstay of the economy. It dominated export revenues, employment and cultivated land.”
According to economist, Dr Singh, sugar production relative to GDP peaked in 1996 at 14.7 per cent and
hit its lowest point in 2014 at 2.8 per cent. He said between 1996 to 2005 the sweetener’s annual average
contribution to GDP was 12 per cent.

However, 2006 to 2016 proved to be very lean years for GUYSUCO when its contribution plummeted to
4.54 per cent of GDP blamed on the loss of preferential prices in the European market in 2006 when the ,
European Agricultural Council (EAC) slashed guaranteed price for sugar by 36 per cent over a four-year
period kicked in..
Before that, receipts from the European market accounted for 50 per cent of GUYSUCO’s sugar output,
and 70 per cent of its revenues.
Successive Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) and A Partnership for National Unity
Alliance Fir Change Coalitions (APNU+AFC) in recent years have attempted restructuring the
perennially ailing sweetener industry which has been haemorrhaging billions in financial
investments for decades.
“Now we are seeing once again, investment in GUYSUCO and we have to continue to invest in
this critical sector. We have to ensure…improved production, but at the same time, (we have to)
look at the social benefit that GUYSUCO brings to these communities,” the minister counselled.
Meanwhile, GUYSUCO’S Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sasenarine Singh said the last time
the industry was beneficiary of equipment of that kind was some seven years ago.
Singh disclosed the sugar industry built a five-year capital program on which the local
sweetener industry will function.