Georgetown, Guyana.
July 15, 2022
For immediate release to all media houses.
AFC Press Release on Sugar
The AFC repeats and maintain that the continuing false explanations and narrative being given by the CEO of GuYSuCO are ill-advised and is a road to nowhere.
The evidence is clear that the perennial shortage of labour will persist in this sector; that the new CEO of GuySuCo and his arrogant attitude towards experienced managers and cane cutters will decidedly demoralise staff and employees; and, and that world market prices will continue to be half of what GuySuCo’s production costs are. All the propaganda spouted by the CEO and the Government will remain hollow and will not move the industry forward.
Sugar has been dying since Guyana lost the preferential prices on the EU market by the WTO ruling that those preferential prices violated open market competition rules. Guyana has been operating at a loss since then. Our cost of production is and will be double the price we will sell for. That again is not prudence.
Moreover, our workforce is not trained beyond substantially a cutlass and punt trajectory, so its a lost cause. This will result in an intergenerational transmission of poverty in these communities which the PPP plays on. This is bad for economic growth as girls are groomed to become housewives to support boys who enter the cane field. There is no opportunity for economic innovation through exposure to education nor technical advances.
The AFC maintains that the right-sizing done under the APNU+AFC Government was the correct approach for the long term growth and development of the country.
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