Dear Editor,
On May 8, 2025, the Stabroek News published an article titled ‘GuySuCo serves up another dismal performance in first crop’. The article stated that ‘The Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) 2025 production to date shows total output of less than 15,000 tonnes sources say, less than half of its projection’. This means that the projected target for the first crop of 2025 was about 30,000 tonnes of sugar from four estates – Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Uitvlugt. Editor, 15,000 tonnes of sugar for a whole first crop is ridiculous by any standard for GuySuCo.
The article further indicated that ‘The figures will pile pressure on the government [to] defend huge subventions to the industry which are not translating into higher and more efficient production’. Indeed, I would like for the government to explain to the Guyanese people, where is all the money budgeted for GuySuCo is going? Albion estate used to produce 20,000 tonnes and Blairmont 15,000 tonnes of sugar in the first crop alone. So far, for 2025, the first crop for four estates is 15,000 tonnes. The government has to be more accountable for how it is using the resources of the country.
GuySuCo made over US$200M more in revenue from 2016 – 2020 than from 2021-2025. Sugar is not produced with politics but rather with good management. How does the PPP/C government justify firing a management at GuySuCo in 2020, that produced 183,615 tonnes in 2016 , 137,298 tonnes in 2017, 104,641 tonnes in 2018, 90,246 tonnes in 2019 89,000 tonnes in 2020 and had a target of 143, 000 tonnes of sugar for 2021/2022; and replaced them with management that produced 58,995 tonnes in 2021, 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,000 tonnes so far, for the first crop of 2025
(See table below).
| Year | Sugar Production (Tonnes of sugar) |
| APNU+AFC Management | |
| 2016 | 183,615 |
| 2017 | 137,298 |
| 2018 | 104,641 |
| 2019 | 90,246 |
| 2020 | 89,000 |
| PPP/C Management | |
| 2021 | 58,995 |
| 2022 | 58,025 |
| 2023 | 60,204 |
| 2024 | 47,130 |
| So far, for the first crop of 2025 | 15,000 |
Even in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with all the restrictions, GuySuCo produced 89,000 tonnes of sugar in 2020. The government came into office in 2020 with a lot of pomp and ceremony about transforming the sugar industry. It is incredible that Paul Chung, the current Chief Executive of GuySuCo was a former Chairman of the Private Sector Commission; now he is supposed to be a business czar, how is it even he cannot produce more sugar that what the previous ‘lowly’, yet more experienced, professional
and knowledgeable managers of GuySuCo under the APNU+AFC government. The underperformance of sugar production is one aspect of the business but the tremendous loss in revenue as a foreign exchange earner is another matter. I would not even venture to write about the loss of markets at this point.
Under the APNU+AFC government, GuySuCo had a future. While four estates were closed, Wales, East Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon, the company continued to operate three estates, Uitvlugt, Blairmont and Albion. The plan was to produce 143,000 tonnes of sugar per year by 2021/2022. The canes were to be grown by GuySuCo and cane farmers. Additionally, the three operating estates would have produced and supplied the local, regional and international markets with brown sugar. However, the Caribbean region imports over 200,000 tonnes of white sugar annually and GuySuCo was planning to produce about 50,000 tons of white sugar and was engaging with another sugar production company in the region that has the capacity to produce white sugar also. This would have required remodeling one or two of the estates to produce brown and white sugar. The company would have continued producing other products, such as molasses. Another new economic activity was sugar tourism, the then management developed a ‘Cultural Heritage (Sugar) Tourism Strategy’ and product, as a new business line.
The PPP/C government will come and tell the people of this country during this year’s elections campaign that the sugar industry produced poorly in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 because the APNU+AFC government closed sugar estates during the reorganization of the sugar industry. However, the question must be asked, how is it that despite the reorganization process, the industry still produced two to three times more sugar from 2016 to 2020, earned over US$200M more and with less resources?
Sincerely,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
![Ongwen could now be imprisoned for life, though judges will address his sentencing at a later date [File: Peter Dejong/ANP/AFP]](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_webp,q_glossy,ret_img,w_350,h_233/https://villagevoicenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Ongwen.jpeg)
