GuySuCo aiming for 97,420 metric tonnes of sugar this year -CEO

Mr. Sasenarine Singh, Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) says the company is rapidly addressing all challenges to ensure it meets the 2021 production target of 97,420 metric tonnes of sugar.

“This year the target is more durable, it’s more achievable and pragmatic. Gone are the days when fuzzy math creates some of these targets. We are going to generate our targets based on the canes standing on the ground. If there is cane on the ground, we will build the target around it because that is how it becomes real. GuySuCo will produce what we can sell at a more valuable price,” he said.

To this end, the CEO said GuySuCo will achieve its plans for the first crop in three phases, with the initial step being the preparation and enhancement of lands, and ensuring that the sugar plants are fed on time. He stressed that the practice of underfeeding the plants has been a pressing issue for the entity and that has to end immediately.

Mr. Fezal Hussein working at the milling section of the Blairmont Sugar Factory

“Our plants are going to get its fertilisers at the right time so that they can produce the right qualities of sugar at the right time, so that they can be taken to the factory at the right time to produce the right amount of sugar.

That brings me to the third element of our performance, greater efficiency in the cane transport group. The weakest link of this business is bringing sugar from the field to the factory. That is where we lose most of our money, because the model says within 48 hours the cane should be in the factory, we have to make sure this happens as much as possible,” Mr. Singh said.

Further, the CEO explained that the Strategic Sub-Committee of the GuySuCo Board, along with senior officers of the entity, have crafted a strategic plan to improve the industry’s viability. He relayed that the foundation of that plan rests on three pillars which includes increasing the stream of revenues by changing the sale mix into more packaged sugar and other value-added products and reviewing the entire value chain to ensure that non-value-added cost are eliminated.

Additionally, GuySuCo has signed a one-year agreement with Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) this year which offers a higher price for molasses.

The Corporation was also able to secure US$30 per metric tonne increase on prices from the main international market – Trinidad. The market in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has expanded, while negotiations to restart sales to Grenada have begun.

Major rehabilitation work ongoing at the Blairmont Sugar Factory

“We have to re-engineer this business. That is why Blairmont Estate is so important, because it is one of the primary Estates that will be driving this value-added production. This is not a hurry up job. At all levels we have been working and training our staff to be very cost-conscious and focused on the market. One of the key themes we said today to the staff here at Blairmont is ‘you are our number one salesman.”

Mr. Singh said the sugar industry has a bright future and called for all ex-sugar workers near and far to rejoin the business.

He pointed out that if a sugar worker harvests more than 10 metric tonnes of canes per week, 40 per cent is added to their salary. Additionally, if they harvest 15 metric tonnes of cane, that will put an additional 69 per cent increase on their wages. An average sugar worker cuts about 2.5 metric tonnes of sugar cane per day.

In September 2020, the Sugar Union had said GuySuCo was only equipped to produce 77,000 metric tonnes of sugar. However, the entity surpassed that figured and produced 11,000 metric tonnes more than the projected amount. The 2020 production ended at some 88,868 metric tonnes of sugar.

The CEO salutes the efforts of his staff, saying that they are the ones who made the impossible achievable at GuySuCo to date.