When the Coalition rightsized Guyana’s sugar industry, many workers from the Wales estate were reassigned to the Uitvlugt Estate where they could remain employed. Now workers of the Uitvlugt Estate have been without work for months as the PPP’s decision to halt work at the estate has in effect closed the estate.
With the Uitvlugt Estate closing permanently, Jagdeo is now urging sugar workers there to start businesses to earn a living. Small business grants of 250,000 are being touted as the solution to their lack of employment. According to the US Bureau of Labour and Statistics, over 20% of small businesses fail in the first year and over 50% fail in the first 5 years.
The PPP had promised that they would reopen the Wales estate and now, instead of reopening the estates as promised, they are closing the Uitvlugt Estate. The production target for 2022 is set at 65,000 tons after producing just 58,000 tons in 2021. 2022’s target is 25,000 tons short of the 90,000 tons produced in 2019 under the APNU+AFC government.
In 2019, under the APNU+AFC, sugar production was 55% higher than it is today under the installed PPP. Clearly, the PPP will not make sugar great again.
More, In The Ring.
