Despite its many troubles over the year, the sugar industry managed to record a 28% increase in sugar production last year, when compared to the 2022 figures. However, production still remains lower than the production figures of 2020.
At a weekend press conference, the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha said the industry is performing better, although not at its best.
“Sugar Production in 2023, we closed at 60,204 metric tons at 28% or 13,155 metric tons increase in production when compared to 47,049 metric tons in 2022,” the Agriculture Minister said.
In 2020, the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) produced 87,875 metric tons of sugar despite battling a global pandemic. In 2019, a total of 92,246 tons of sugar was produced. 2019 was the first-time sugar production fell below 100,000 since 1926.
But though the industry continues to perform below its expected level, the Agriculture Minister said he remains optimistic. He said in less than three months of being reopened, the Rose Hall Estate was able to produced 1,031 metric tons of sugar.
Added to that, GuySuCo replanted 52% more of its lands in 2023 or a total of 4,020 hectares, when compared to 2022, and was also able to bag or package 54% of all the sugar produced in 2023.
In an attempt to ramp up the production of value-added products, the Sugar Corporation has commenced the construction of the Albion and Blairmont Packaging Plants.
Minister Mustapha told reporters that the progress was being recorded even as the Sugar Corporation reduced its dependency on Government for financial aid.
“We have seen a 22% decrease of funding that we have requested from the government compared to 2022. So, 2023, we had $8.1B to continue the revitalization effort of the Sugar Industry. This reflects a decrease of 22% when compared to 2022,” the Agriculture Minister explained.
Initially, the National Assembly had approved $4B in the 2023 National Budget for the Sugar Corporation. However, additional funds were sought and provided in the supplementary budgets.
A total of 8,294 workers are currently employed within the industry, with more than 4600 of them hired last year.
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