Production of Sugar at the Guyana Sugar Corporation
(GuySuCo) Uitvlugt Estate, West Coast Demerara is rapidly winding down for the Second Crop of 2020, bringing the Corporation’s total annual production of sugar to 85,531 Metric Tonnes (MT) as of December 6, 2020. GuySuCo is therefore, on course to achieving 89,000 MT of sugar before the crop closes in two (2) weeks.
Guyana Standard understands that Uitvlugt Estate, one of the three operational Estates managed by GuySuCo, concluded its production for the second crop of 2020 with a total of 18,599.4 MT as of December 6, 2020.
Estate Manager, Yudhisthira Mana said that employees of the Estate must be commended for working diligently to harvest all of the available sugar cane on the Estate resulting in zero amounts being carried over into the First Crop of 2021. He explained that the objective was realised despite challenges in the cultivation as a result of inclement weather during the latter part of the crop, and the lack of timely access to spare parts.
The Uitvlugt Estate cultivates and manages a total of 6,006 Hectares of sugar cane, of which several members of the Private Cane Farmers’ Association control 1,750 Hectares.
In outlining the challenges of the Second Crop, the Estate Manager informed that as a result of the massive factory downtime earlier in the Crop (some 430 hours mainly due to lack of spares), sugar cane grinding was stalled for more than 8 days, which impacted the tonnes cane to tonnes sugar ratio (tc/ts).
However, all technical issues are actively being addressed going forward with the support of G$3 billion in capital investments from the Government of Guyana.
In 2021, there will be a continuation of these capital investments after three years of minimal investments under the prior administration.
During the latter stage of harvesting, Sugar Production at the Estate was also threatened due to the inclement weather that prevailed, resulting in the fields being inundated and the inability to burn the canes before harvesting and operation of the bell loaders.
“In acknowledging the favorable industrial relations climate, the Corporation wishes to express
profound gratitude to all workers for their commitment to improving sugar production despite
the many challenges and assures that all measures are taken to improve both infrastructure and
other conditions for 2021 and beyond,” GuySuCo said.
At present, Uitvlugt Estate employs a total of 1,403 workers.
