Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to articles published on GuySuCo in the Guyana Times on May 21, 2025, and titled ‘CEO steering company through structural reforms, not “bubbling on the job” – GuySuCo’, and in the Stabroek News (SN) on May 22, 2025, and title ‘GuySuCo blames poor first crop on heavy, persistent rain’. In addition to a letter that was published in SN and titled ‘Sugar industry producing 4.4x less than it did in 2015 largely because of closure of four estates’.
There is no structural reform that the current CEO, Paul Cheong could be doing that is more intense, complex and complicated than what the management of GuySuCo underwent from 2016 – 2020. The then management was engaged in a reorganization process which saw four estates being closed – Wales, East Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon, and yet the company produced two to three times more sugar than was produced from 2021 – 2025 and earned over US$200M more in revenue.
The previous management of GuySuCo 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. While from 2021 to 2025, the new management produced 58,995 tonnes in 2021, 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,980 tonnes for the first crop of 2025.
On the point of heavy persistent rain being the reason for the poor first crop in 2025. Editor, 2025 is not the first year that rain fell in Guyana. GuySuCo meticulously integrates weather conditions into its production planning and implementation – into planting and harvesting of sugar canes, so heavy persistent rain is an old excuse. Rain also fell in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and yet, production was two to three times more than the production from 2021 to 2025.
In relation to the letter by Mr. Joel Bhagwandin in the Stabroek News and titled ‘Sugar industry producing 4.4x less than it did in 2015 largely because of closure of four estates’. Now, 2015 was ten years ago. Is Mr. Bhagwandin telling the Guyanese people, that closure of the four sugar estates in 2016 and 2017, nine years ago, is the reason for GuySuCo is producing 58,995 tonnes in 2021, 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,980 tonnes for the first crop of 2025, while the same GuySuCo produced two to three time more sugar during the period when the estates were being closed?
Mr. Bhagwandin further stated in his letter the following, ‘The APNU+AFC government closed four (4) sugar estates, namely: Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales. When the PPP/C government resumed office in 2020, work began to reopen only two of those estates: Rose Hall and Skeldon. As of 2022, according to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) annual report, the reopened estates were not yet accounting for total production, which is understandable.
It took a considerable amount of time and resources to put back those estates into production. It was not an easy task then, and it is still not an easy task now’. GuySuCo under the APNU+AFC produced 104,641 tonnes in 2018, 90,246 tonnes in 2019, 89,000 tonnes in 2020 from three operating estates – Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt, while the letter writer, the government and GuySuCo would want to have us believe that with five estates – Albion, Blairmont, Uitvlugt, and the two reopened estates, Rose Hall and Skeldon, the corporation produced 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,980 tonnes for the first crop of 2025.
The PPP/C government has been fooling us while they are wasting our money. Based on what Mr. Bhagwandin is saying, GuySuCo’s current Chief Executive must be sent home without delay. If under his management GuySuCo produced 15,980 tonnes of sugar for the first crop 2025, from five estates, he must be fired with immediate effect.
This should not only be about playing politics. In terms of markets for sugar, if GuySuCo produced 58,995 tonnes in 2021, 58,025 tonnes in 2022, 60,204 tonnes in 2023, 47,130 in 2024 and now 15,980 tonnes for the first crop of 2025, it means that the markets they had in 2020 when they produced 89,000 tonnes, they do not have all of those markets in 2025. These would be regional and international markets. Additionally, in terms of molasses, if these are the production figures for the past five years, then the company is not providing the markets with the amount of molasses that was supplied from 2016 to 2020.
Finally, under the APNU+AFC government, the idea was to reorganize the industry and retain three operating estates and improve the production to 143,000 by 2021/2022. Annually, Albion was a $9 billion dollars business in Region Six, Blairmont was a $5 billion business in Region 5 and Uitvlugt was a $4 billion business in Region Three, hence, the thinking of the APNU+AFC government was to maintain these estates as vibrant businesses in these regions, so that the over 200 businesses which were feeding off the productivity of the corporation, would have continued to be robust.
Is Mr. Paul Cheong telling us that 8,000 employees produced 15,980 tonnes of sugar for the first crop and over a period of for five months (January – May 2025)? Then what has happened to the sugar and molasses markets and those 200 businesses, if GuySuCo is producing a meagre 15,980 tonnes of sugar over five months? The government must be more accountable for how they are using our money and managing the economy.
Yours truly,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
