The imminent closure of remaining GuySuCo estates comes as no surprise

Jun 19, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

The recent revelations in the press regarding GuySuCo points to imminent closure of its remaining three estates. This situation comes as no surprise to citizens who follow the industry and its developments. The impending closure is a direct result of gross negligence, incompetence and malfeasance in public office. I say this because this nation was lobbied by the Board of Directors and Management Committee of the Corporation to close four estates (Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales) and retain three (Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt). The tagline used by the Corporations’ executives during the lobbying masquerade was “Transforming GuySuCo into Resilient Business”. All executive managers of GuySuCo were in on this masquerade. There was zero tolerance for anyone that questioned the concept. In fact, the new administration was praised for their decisive position to “save” sugar.

Here we are less than five years later, and GuySuCo has been reduced to complete bankruptcy instead of a thriving resilient business. Significantly, the administration of GuySuCo managed to destroy its premier sugar producers namely Albion and Blairmont estates. These two units have always been GuySuCo’s top performers. For e.g., in 2015 Albion and Blairmont produced 61,910t and 36,695t sugar respectively. It 2019, sugar production slumped to 46,651t and 23,325t respectively. This is a whopping decrease in production of 25% and 36% respectively in 4 short years. No one should be surprised that the business is going bankrupt with this rate of decline. What should be surprising is that no one is held accountable for the destruction of sugar estates that are capable of aiding a rebirth of the sugar business. GuySuCo is currently placing heavy emphasis on building a plantation white sugar plant at Albion with a capacity to produce over 50,000t sugar annually by end of 2021. From all appearances, the estate is now facing difficulty to meet the 50,000t mark for this new project. This will certainly place the project in jeopardy. Over at its Blairmont facility, production of packaged and bagged sugars is remarkably low due to massive 36% decline in sugar production. This means the estate cannot capitalize on higher priced products because it is simply unavailable. The constantly declining production coupled with a top heavy bureaucratic management that adds zero value to its business is a major contributor to present state of affairs.

Yours truly,

Sookram Persaud

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