Georgetown, Guyana — The Alliance for Change (AFC) rapped the PPP government’s approach to Guyana’s sugar industry at a press conference on November 1, with Co-founder and Member of Parliament Khemraj Ramjattan calling recent assurances of increased production “poppycock and propaganda.” Ramjattan criticized the government’s costly investments and consistent underperformance, suggesting that fundamental challenges in the sugar sector cannot be solved with superficial fixes.
“The recent pretended alarm, which GAWU has sounded over the below-target sugar production of GuySuCo, is well-founded,” Ramjattan stated, as he referenced disappointing production levels this year. He noted that GuySuCo has produced just 6,738 tons of sugar in the first crop, compared to the 37,000-ton target, and only 25,000 tons in the second crop, which has a goal of 63,000 tons. With two months left in the year, the industry is “far off the reduced target for 2024,” he said, which was already lowered to 100,000 tons.
Ramjattan argued that recent government actions, including the replacement of former PPP-appointed CEO Sasenarine Singh with Paul Cheong, another PPP loyalist, would not address the deeper issues facing the sector. “The sugar industry suffers fundamental problems that cannot be solved by replacing CEOs nor fooling Guyanese about expectations of the hollowest order,” he remarked.
Highlighting Guyana’s costly sugar legacy, Ramjattan pointed to the infamous Skeldon Project, a major investment spearheaded by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, which he said still burdens taxpayers with approximately $3.8 million annually—a commitment that will continue until 2033. Additionally, he noted that since the PPP took office in 2020, nearly GY$43 billion has been directed toward the sector, including GY$9.2 billion in subsidies this year alone. “The sweet talk of improvement in production was thus all hollow,” Ramjattan added, arguing that these investments do little to benefit the sector’s future or boost productivity.
Ramjattan’s remarks emphasized that Guyana’s loss of preferential prices on the European market under WTO rulings, combined with the high cost of production, continues to render the industry uncompetitive. “Our cost of production is and will be double the price we sell for,” he noted, pointing out that many young workers have little interest in joining what he called “backbreaking work in a hotter climate.”
He also took aim at the PPP’s alignment with the sugar union GAWU, suggesting that the union’s financial security depends on maintaining the current scale of operations. “GAWU will do everything to see its parent body, the PPP, pour subventions upon subventions to keep the industry in the scale it wants,” Ramjattan stated. “By a similar logic, [GAWU seeks] to keep itself alive,” he added, suggesting that the union cannot offer a “principled, prudent stance” on the sugar industry’s future.
The AFC’s criticism underscores growing questions about Guyana’s sugar industry ahead of the 2025 general and regional elections. Ramjattan reiterated that the AFC believes the government’s strategy risks perpetuating poverty among sugar workers rather than providing sustainable development solutions.
