GuySuCo on course to achieving production target

PRODUCTION of sugar at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) at the Uitvlugt Estate, West Coast Demerara is rapidly winding down for the second crop of 2020, bringing the Corporation’s total annual production of sugar to 85,531 Metric Tonnes (MT) as of December 6, 2020.
This is on course to achieving GuySuCo’s target of 89,000 MT of sugar before the crop closes in two weeks, a release from the corporation said.
Uitvlugt Estate, one of the three operational estates managed by GuySuCo, has concluded its production for the second crop of 2020 with a total of 18,599.4 MT as of December 6, 2020.

Estate Manager, Yudhisthira Mana, explained that while the estate experienced several challenges in the cultivation as a result of inclement weather during the latter part of the crop and the factory due to a lack of timely access to spare parts, employees of the estate must be commended for working diligently for harvesting all of the available sugar cane on the estate, resulting in zero amounts being carried over into the first crop of 2021.

The Uitvlugt Estate cultivates and manages a total of 6,006 hectares of sugar cane, of which several members of the Private Cane Farmers’ Association are controlling 1,750 hectares.

In outlining the challenges of the second crop, the estate manager informed that as a result of the massive factory downtime earlier in the crop (some 430 hours mainly due to lack of spares), sugar cane grinding was stalled for more than eight days which impacted the tonnes cane to tonnes sugar ratio (tc/ts).
However, the Corporation said all technical issues are actively being addressed going forward with the support of G$3 billion in capital investments from the Government of Guyana. In 2021, there will be a continuation of these capital investments after three years of minimal investments under the prior administration.

During the latter stage of harvesting, sugar production at the estate was also threatened due to the inclement weather that prevailed resulting in the fields being inundated and the inability to burn the canes before harvesting and operation of the bell loaders.
“In acknowledging the favourable industrial relations climate, the corporation wishes to express profound gratitude to all workers for their commitment to improving sugar production despite the many challenges and assures that all measures are taken to improve both infrastructure and other conditions for 2021 and beyond. At present, Uitvlugt Estate employs a total of 1,403 workers,” the release concluded.