Pouring cold water on the President’s announcement that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) will roll out “a massive diversification plan” for the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), Co-founder of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan said supporters of the PPP/C in the sugar belt should not be deceived by the “propaganda”.

Last week, President Irfaan Ali said GuySuCo would undergo massive transformation during a PPP second term in office to become a modern, sustainable contributor to national development. His announcement comes even as the sugar industry struggles to meet its targets, despite billions in investment.

Responding to the President’s announcement, the AFC Executive, Khemraj Ramjattan said the announcement is nothing but a political gimmick intended to hoodwink the citizens into voting for the PPP/C.

“It seems that the PPP wants to spend a massive set of money, and probably for electoral purposes too, on a sector that has gone down the drain in the worst of its history, and wanting to spend and run the country down just to keep GuySuCo going,” Ramjattan said.

President Ali, in laying out his plans for the Sugar Industry, said A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Administration is responsible for the current state of the Sugar Industry, contending that its decision to close the Wales, East Demerara, Rose Hall and Skeldon Estates between 2016 and 2017 crippled the Sugar Industry.

But standing by the APNU+AFC Administration’s decision to “right-size” the sugar sector, Ramjattan said it was the PPP/C Government that brought the industry down to the ground during its 23 years in Office from 1992 to 2015.

“As we have said before, there are reasons why this industry was run down and it was long before the APNU+AFC came into government that caused this. Moneys from EU, the European Union, over US$100 million was never directed to rehabilitate factories, and to do back construction work and drainage and irrigation in these estates,” Ramjattan said.

He said when the coalition took office in 2015, the sugar industry was in a terrible state, and the decision to “right-size” the Sugar Corporation was in keeping with a commission’s report, a paper on the industry, and the advice of Errol Hanoman – an expert, who had led the corporation.

“He had made it quite clear that right-sizing was the way to go forward with the Sugar Industry, so that at some point in time we can make it profitable, namely merging of estates but also, what you call phasing away of certain factories, and we had identified those, because what was needed was good support for the factories that could have made it,” the AFC Executive said.

It was noted that between 2015 and 2020, the coalition government spent approximately $42B on GuySuCo. He is of the opinion that the younger generation is not interested in working in the sugar industry because of the nature of the job and “its back breaking character.”

 GuySuCo has long spoken about its push towards “mechanization,” but Ramjattan said the reality is, the soil types and terrain within the estates are not compatible.

Additionally, he said the capital investment needed is tremendous, at a time when production remains at an all-time high.

“The capital investment needed for all of the deteriorating structures that are there, will be too massive. But, most of all will be the price in the world market for sugar. We will continually, even with all, if we solve the problem of capital investment, will still have a price in the world market that will be lower than our cost of production, and to that extent, it is quite clear that the country will not have a good future with sugar,” Ramjattan said.

Warning that changing CEOs would not help, Ramjattan emphasizing the need for the right-sizing of the industry even as he urged the PPP/C support based not to be misled by the PPP/C.

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