Dear Editor,
I note with some concern a letter printed in Monday’s Kaieteur News, December 11, 2023 captioned “ This country is in good hands,” and written by Angelita Karran.
The writer accuses me of distorting the facts with respect to the operations at Guysuco. The history of sugar is a troubled journey from slavery to indentureship. As one who has been in the hustings for seven decades I am immune to such verbal assaults by the likes of Angelita Karran.
When I was made Vice President, Production, I was required to look closely at Guysuco. When the EU withdrew its subsidy it exposed the weaknesses of the sugar industry and presented an enormous challenge of change to make it viable.
The Industry has also suffered from our political nonsense spanning three generations and those of us who wish to show due regard and perhaps reverence to those who toiled on the plantations should go after only relating with accuracy what is thus giving succeeding generations an opportunity to vindicate the suffering their foreparents suffered on the plantations.
The writer is entitled to make a judgment on the competence or otherwise of an individual. The problem in the sugar industry goes beyond the performance of the individual. It has to do with the way decisions are made and implemented.
I stand by my statement as contained in my letter published 11th August, 2023, to which Angelita Karran refers and four months after like Rip Van Winkle puts in question the gravamen of my letter.
Let me state as follows, we in Guyana have two crops per year, the first crop usually reaped from February to April is about 40% of our total cultivation, and the second crop, July to November is around 60%. The reason we have divided our crops into two in this fashion is because in Guyana the May-June rains interrupts the harvesting cycle. As far as I can discover this happens nowhere else in the world.
Currently, the sugar cane industry in Guyana, after all the closures, is around 17,000 hectares. This is in keeping with the government’s estimates to use these 17,000 hectares to produce 90 to 100 thousand tonnes of sugar per year. Since we currently have 17,000 hectares, given our factory’s capacity, we need around seven months, 220 days to harvest our canes., but in Guyana we cannot get 220 dry days between January to April or between July to November. So we harvest 40% or 6800 hectares in the first crop, January – April and 10,200 hectares in our second crop July to November.
In 2020, this country produced 88,868 tonnes of sugar from this same 17,000 hectares but in 2023, we are struggling to produce 60,000 tonnes.
Dear Editor, they did produce 60,000 tonnes, but that is not the whole story. In 2023, Guysuco harvested approximately 22,340 hectares, but currently Guysuco only has approximately 17,000 hectares,so how can that be?
This year 2023, 2nd crop alone, Guysuco reaped 3400 hectares of cane which was supposed to be next year’s first crop. Editor, they harvested nearly half of the 2024 first crop this year to make that paltry 60,000 tonnes.
Harvesting that much cane at six months instead of twelve months is an act of craziness, which our fathers would never have allowed, since it was considered an act of ‘RAPE.’ No sane Analyst would believe that any Management could be so irresponsible as to butcher next year’s first crop in this manner, just to deceive the public into believing that Guysuco appears to be making progress.
Actually, this requires a Commission of Enquiry, since after all of the billions the Government has poured into Guysuco, since September 2020. They have nothing to show for it, and in addition they are committing acts of complete insanity in the management of the people’s sugar industry.
I am wedded to these sentiments expressed by William Faulkner, “ Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world… would do this, it would change the earth.”
Hamilton Green
Elder
