A turnaround of the industry is impossible, since in effect it is already dead

Dem boys seh…GuySuCo eating money like rat eating cheese

When dog accustom to suck egg is a bad thing. Is de same thing when people like lie.
Dem boys seh that de GuySuCo people go in front of a committee in parliament and tell some people whatever come to dem mind. Is a case of telling de people who asking de question anything because dem and all ain’t know better.
De government decide fuh treat GuySuCo like a funnel. All it do is put money inside and de money passing through. Wha get dem boys vex is de way how Donald and all of dem who dealing wid GuySuCo  tek Guyanese fuh fools,. Dem paying more fuh de sugar than dem can sell de sugar for. That mean that GuySuCo gun burn up de people money faster that people feeding money to an incinerator.
De Economic Services Committee didn’t ask GuySuCo how much money it does cost to produce a pound of sugar. First was Jagdeo, then Donald who been putting money into de sugar industry like how a gambler does put money in a game and keep hoping but all de while he losing.
Dem boys already find out that de money GuySuCo does get when it sell sugar not even enough fuh pay wages and salaries. This is de same company that want to bring in machine but it ain’t got money to pay fuh it. This is de same company that Jagdeo did tell de whole Guyana that he gun go to Skeldon heself and fix de factory.
Is only a stupid person gun spend money pun something that throwing away money. If a man got a car wid a big hole in de gas tank and he keep pumping in gas de car gun barely move but it gun end up going nowhere. If de man keep doing this, no matter how rich he rich, in de end he ain’t gun have money to keep de car driving.   That is de case of GuySuCo.
And de people who meet Greenidge and all of dem who think dem know bout sugar sit down and hear de GuySuCo people talk and didn’t understand that de people was doing to dem wha de Billy goat do to its mother.
Talk half and watch how GuySuCo swallowing money like how de whale swallow Jonah.

No turnaround for sugar industry…GuySuCo produces sugar at double world market price

- owes over US$170M in debts

 
- employees’ contributions not paid, benefits in jeopardy

As concerns continue to grow over the viability of the country’s sugar industry, Government yesterday said that it is seriously considering other alternatives, including going the route of producing ethanol.

Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, and GuySuCo top executives yesterday.

The disclosure was made yesterday by Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, as the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) appeared for the second time in less than a week before the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Economic Services.
But Dr Ramsammy’s comments seemed to echo those made by Anthony Vieira, a former sugar producer, in a letter published in the Kaieteur News, yesterday.
The industry is in a deep trouble with no immediate end in sight.
According to Minister Ramsammy, Government believes that GuySuCo’s future lies in mechanization and diversification. He pointed to an ethanol pilot project ongoing at Albion Estate in Berbice which will determine how GuySuCo proceeds in the future.
GuySuCo’s option of going the ethanol route is one that the Opposition has indicated a willingness to back.
But it is not only the Opposition that has been flaying Government over GuySuCo.
The letter pages in the daily newspapers have been filled with protests from local analysts, including Professor Clive Thomas and former sugar executive, Tony Vieira, among others.
In a stinging letter yesterday, Vieira, a former Member of Parliament, said that since September 2013, the world market price for sugar was fluctuating between US$0.16 a pound and US$0.19 a pound. He argued that the long term outlook for sugar, as far as price is concerned, is not good.
With GuySuCo admitting that production costs will only drop to around US$0.25 at best, it will only mean that taxpayers will have to consistently bail the industry out.
Vieira also slammed the US$200M expansion of Skeldon, calling it “a monstrous mistake by itself.”
“They are reluctant to admit that they created a white elephant and are now making a second mistake by turning to the production of packaged sugar instead of ethanol, which is what they should have done once they had made this disastrous decision to expand the Guyana industry when everyone else was downgrading/abandoning theirs. Trinidad, Jamaica, St Kitts and Barbados are good examples, due to the loss of the EU subsidy.”
Not only does GuySuCo owe US$170M in both short and long term debts, including for the troubled flagship Skeldon factory, but it is producing sugar at an unrealistic US$0.35 per pound and selling for a worrying loss of an average US$0.25 per pound.
According to GuySuCo’s outgoing Finance Director, Paul Bhim, GuySuCo owes banks – both local and foreign, suppliers, the Guyana Revenue Authority, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee (SILWFC) some $58B.
With regards to NIS payments, there have been repeated claims of non-payment of contributions, and there are now fears over how this will affect workers who are claiming benefits.
It also owes another US$112M loaned to the Guyana Government for the New Skeldon Sugar Factory by the World Bank, China EXIM Bank and Caribbean Development Bank.
GuySuCo is asking for patience, saying that Guyana will have to wait until 2017, as part of its strategy to turn the fortunes of the industry around, to bring production prices to about US$0.27 per pound. Between last year and now, Parliament approved US$50M. GuySuCo now wants another US$30M to help the industry.
But there is still no guarantee what will happen in 2017 as already sugar prices have plunged from over US$700 per tonne in December to below US$500 per tonne. To realistically compete with the rest of the world, Guyana must bring down its production costs to below US$0.20 per pound.
Industry experts are forecasting that sugar prices will remain depressed for some time as neighbouring Brazil and Thailand have increased their output, helping to flood the world market. GuySuCo itself has said that there is glut in the world market of almost two million tonnes. This has driven prices down.
The Skeldon expansion project is the most expensive project to date in Guyana. Shortly before he left office in 2011, former President Bharrat Jagdeo said he would have personally made it his duty to ensure the problematic Skeldon factory is fixed.

Jagdeo Skeldon factory mekking de dearest sugar in de world

GuySuCo is de cash cow fuh dem Pee Pee Pee boys. That is wheh Jagdeo seh he spend US$200 million and de nation want fuh see wha that money spend pun.
Dem want know how come so much money spend and de Skeldon factory instead of going upwards, it going downwards. And de only way something can go downwards is if wha you buy is not proppa and good fuh nutten.
De machine that de old Skeldon factory had use to mek Guyana see a profit. It use to grind 8 to 10 tonne cane and mek one tonne sugar. De new factory wha Jagdeo put down grinding 25 tonne cane fuh mek one tonne sugar.
Dem cane cutter don’t have to go to school fuh understand wha going deh. And if you think that is insult, Guyana got to pay interest pun de f***in money Jagdeo seh he spend pun de machine.
To add more insult, every year de factory tekking billions wha Jagdeo and now Donald seh dem a pump in de industry just fuh keep de sugar workers going. De time gun come when dem gun really got fuh pump.
And is not only de Pee Pee Pee to blame fuh this skullduggery. Hap New had always been supporting this waste of money, blindly. Up de last US$30 million, again wha dem seh dem give GuySuCo, Hap New support.
Is when Vieira, de real sugar boy, expose dem in a letter, then he undress all of dem before he hammer dem, one by one, not two by two, even to dem who don’t wear underwear, is then that idiot Ruput Narine seh that he and Hap New mek a mistake fuh approve de US$30 million.
Dem boys want to believe that Donald did promise all of dem a cut before dem vote, but like he nah give dem nutten. And de reason why dem boys believe was a sharing business Hap New and Pee Pee Pee was into, is because nobody in dem righted senses would spend money to produce sugar at $68 a pound when de whole world producing de same sugar fuh $40 a pound.
Dem boys got a question fuh de Hanah Rebel Nandalall, Rob de Earth and Donald. “Who runs business like that?” Only three people dem boys can think of right off de bat— de Rat, Jagdeo, de shaat scamp and de fat crook, Brazzy.
Talk half and watch wha part of de factory dem seh dem a put de money.

GuySuCo $6B bailout was a mistake – Roopnaraine

“Frankly when we did it, it was a mistake. I will tell you that, bluntly, because no bail out money should be made available to any malfunctioning corporation until we can ensure that in fact we correct the malfunction, errors and deficiencies and they give us a plan on how they plan to expend this money provided.”

APNU Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine

This is according to A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Executive member and Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine.
He was at the time responding to the non scrutiny that took place when $6B was approved by the Combined opposition with its majority in the National Assembly in the 2014 Budget to bailout the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
Addressing the possible request of a further $6B by the company to buy harvesters in a hope to return the company to profitability by next year, Roopnaraine said that the opposition would no longer agree “to the granting of these large sums of monies to bail out GuySuCo without a specific plan laid out to us stating exactly how it will be applied and how we can anticipate how the improvements will be made.”
Roopnaraine is contending that there are a lot of things happening with GuySuCo that requires investigation and a great sense of urgency.
He is of the opinion that instead of being on the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Economic Services, GuySuCo should be subjected to a Special Parliamentary Committee investigation looking at GuySuCo only.
“We need a complete management over hall of GuySuCo, not simply the board, you have to fix the board but it…is not really as independent as it needs to be. When you talk to management they refer you to the board and when you talk to the board to whom will they refer you,” queried Roopnaraine.
GuySuCo has been recording a string of poor performances, grounding to a 23-year low last year with 187,000 tonnes. This was down from the 260,000 tonnes announced at the beginning of the year. This year, the industry was a little more hesitant, setting a target of 216,000 tonnes of sugar.
GuySuCo will now be asking a new Board which will be appointed shortly, to consider a new strategic plan, to be laid in the National Assembly soon after.
Further exacerbating GuySuCo’s problems, is the faulty Skeldon project which reportedly cost Guyana in excess of US$200M, the most expensive infrastructure so far. It also included opening up new cane lands, conversion of fields to accommodate mechanical harvesters and allowing more private cane farming, with GuySuCo even hiring outside experts, including from South Africa, to fix the issues.
Six major ones remain, including a defective punt dumper, which will cost GuySuCo up to US$4M to fix.
GuySuCo has remained a largely touchy issue for both the ruling party and the Opposition because of the sheer number of workers. The sugar industry remains the largest employer for the country with 16,000 workers, 300 suppliers and about 100,000 persons indirectly dependent on its factories.
When asked if this was a determining factor in the opposition approving $6B in the National Assembly to bailout the ailing sugar company without a proper plan being outlined, Roopnarine said that did not influence their decision to provide support, “there were other things.”