Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to Mr. Paul Cheong, Chief Executive of GuySuCo letter that was published in the Stabroek News on June 1, 2025, and titled ‘GuySuCo is moving forward with resolve and there are many plans in the works’. The letter stated that ‘As for labour, we are in a situation faced by agricultural businesses worldwide-labour shortages. That’s not a “Cheong problem,” that’s a reality. In fact, GuySuCo offers some of the highest harvester wages in the global sugar industry.
Still, people are moving away from agriculture. Our response? Mechanization! Because building for the future requires adapting, not complaining”’. Now editor, when the PPP/C was campaigning for the 2020 General and Regional Elections, they said that one of the reasons that they were reopening the closed estates was because there were so many people who were laid off from these estates and needed jobs. Where are all of those people now? How is Mr. Cheong now saying that labour is a problem? Labour was a problem since under the APNU+AFC Government, which was one of the reasons for reorganizing the corporation.
Cheong further stated ‘Plans for Second Crop 2025 are well underway. We’re improving logistics, improving drone technology, remote sensing… a new sugar dryer, syrup clarifier’ among others’. He further indicated ‘”I’m navigating a century-old institution through climate change, labour shifts, destruction of infrastructure by the last APNU+AFC administration and structural reform. That’s a big job, but someone’s got to do it and I’m proud to lead that effort”’.
So, because of heavy rain, all of these plans for the second crop and other plans, GuySuCo’s production was 15,980 tonnes of sugar for the first crop of 2025? This is like every time you go your computer technician, he says to you that the computer has to be reprogrammed or every time you go to the mechanic, he says that you need a new engine or a surgeon who always says that you need surgery. This is the difference between specialists, experts and neophytes.
The first crop is usually an indication of the production for the second crop. Under the APNU+AFC Government, GuySuCo had specialists and experts managing the corporation, so they did not have to shut down the entire operation to fix it. This is where you separate the men from the boys.
In relation to the destruction of infrastructure by the last APNU+AFC. The APNU+AFC Coalition government handed over to the PPP/C Government three operating estates – Albion, a $9 billion business in Region 6; Blairmont, a $5 billion business in Region 5; and Uitvlugt, a $4 billion business in Region 3; a corporation that produced 89,000 tonnes of sugar in 2020 and was producing two to three times more sugar from 2016 – 2020 than what it produced from 2021 – 2025.
Based on the APNU+AFC plan, GuySuCo would have been producing between 143,000 – 150,000 tonnes of sugar in 2025, in addition to white sugar. The breweries would have been producing more rum because they would have been supplied with more molasses. The corporation would have also had a vibrant sugar tourism programme as a new business line because people were already paying US$50.00 per person to visit the estates.
In addition to developing a new business model for the three operating estates, GuySuCo under the APNU+AFC Government was developing a diversification programme, and they had developed the ‘Sustainable and Resilient Communities Programme’ (S&RCP) and ‘Alternative Livelihoods Programme’. This programme provided support for the ex-employees, their families and communities.
President Ali in reports in the press stated that the government is willing to co-invest with sugar workers and build stronger income and better livelihoods. Under the APNU+AFC Government, GuySuCo had a comprehensive Sustainable and Resilient Communities Programme and Alternative Livelihoods Programme. Where the ex-employees were being reskilled and those working in the corporation were being upskilled.
Mr. Cheong further stated, ‘I’ve been reading the recent flurry of commentary about GuySuCo’s First Crop 2025 performance and myself, with a mix of curiosity and amusement’. Editor, I would have been amused and laughing too, if I was being paid handsomely with the kind of benefits that Mr. Cheong is getting, with 8,000 employees, and producing 15,980 tonnes of sugar in five months (from January to May) from five estates, and there were no accountability requirements or consequences. However, old people does seh ‘who laff last does laff de best’ and ‘all skin teeth nah laff’.
GuySuCo has a future but under an APNU or APNU+AFC Government, not under this PPP/C Government, their focus is too much on the oil money.
Yours truly,
Citizen Audreyanna Thomas
