The once-dominant sugar industry in Guyana is facing severe challenges, with recent figures highlighting massive shortfalls in production and long-standing concerns about mismanagement under successive People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) governments.
When the PPP/C assumed office in October 1992, the state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) employed 28,081 workers. By May 2015, when the PPP/C left office, that number had dropped to 16,927 — a loss of 11,154 jobs. The vast majority of those remaining, 15,387, were field and factory workers, according to a 2021 study commissioned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The job losses under the PPP/C far outpaced those under any other administration. In comparison, the People’s National Congress (PNC) governments of Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte oversaw just 325 job losses, and the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration saw 5,160.
GuySuCo continues to rely heavily on state support. Its annual wage and salary bill is estimated at approximately $13 billion. However, the cost of producing a pound of sugar stands at around US$1.23, while the average revenue from sugar sales has not exceeded US$0.40 per pound — an unsustainable gap that raises questions about the viability of the industry.
Despite repeated promises of revival, production targets continue to fall short. President Irfaan Ali announced an ambitious target of 100,000 metric tonnes for 2024, but actual production ended at just over 47,000 tonnes — less than half the projection. For 2025, GuySuCo is again targeting 101,000 tonnes, but early figures show production at less than 15,000 tonnes to date.
“We are in May and the crop closure should have ended at April 30th, but the rains disrupted that and we are nowhere near the target,” an industry insider told Stabroek News. “To date, all the estates have figures of less than 15,000 tonnes.”
Of the four operating estates, Albion recorded the highest production so far this year, with just 4,000 tonnes — still 8,389 tonnes short of its target.
These underwhelming figures have sparked renewed debate about the billions in government subventions allocated to GuySuCo. Critics argue that the subsidies have not translated into increased efficiency or sustainable production levels.
Stabroek News reports when Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha was contacted for comment, he admitted not having the current production data on hand but promised to follow up. He added that recent weather conditions have posed challenges, stating that “they had a lot of issues.”
Meanwhile the industry continues to struggle with high costs, low output, and no clear recovery plan. To this end the PPP/C’s stewardship of the sugar sector is drawing increasing scrutiny, particularly from workers and communities that have long depended on the industry for their livelihoods.
