Sugar production costs to reduce ‘tremendously’ this year

A reduction in sugar production costs is expected this year, according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha.

Mustapha defended budgetary allocations to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) on Friday, as the Parliamentary Committee of Supply scrutinised the funds for the Agriculture Ministry.

And in doing so, he told Parliamentarians that the government continues to focus heavily on reviving GuySuCo.

“We are working to reduce tremendously the cost of production. They are looking to bring it down to 51 [US] cents, but we also have to look at the impact of GuySuCo on the economy,” Mustapha said.

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Currently, the cost of production is about US$1.31.

The Agriculture Minister was quizzed about the funds for GuySuCo by Opposition Parliamentarian, Viceroy Jordan.

According to Jordan, GuySuCo lost almost $30 billion since 2020. So, he asked the minister how the “problem of continued losses” would be fixed.

Mustapha responded, “We are working to reduce cost of production.”

However, he reminded Parliamentarians that the PPP/C government has been saddled with the burden of reviving the industry after it was badly neglected by the APNU+AFC coalition from 2015 to 2020.

“The industry was in a state where we have to spend a lot of funds to bring it back to where it is now,” he said.

Expanding on this, the Agriculture Minister said the Rose Hall Estate had overgrown bushes; Uitvlugt was left “to the mercy of nature” and the entire Albion Estate needs fixing.

He highlighted, “We are working to ensure that we have maximum capacity at these estates.”

A whopping $104.6 billion has been set aside for the agriculture sector in the $1.38 trillion 2205 National Budget. Of that sum, $13.3 billion for the continued revitalisation of the sugar industry.

The funds allocated to the sector were scrutinised on Friday, as the consideration of the budget estimates got underway.