The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) has slashed its 2026 production target from 100,000 tonnes to 58,137 tonnes, a reduction of almost 42%, but WIN parliamentarian and former corporation executive Vishnu Panday says even the revised figure is unlikely to be met.
“Although the new target is now significantly reduced, there are doubts that the industry will surpass 55,000 metric tons,” Panday told Kiskadee Watch.
GuySuCo has not provided official word of the slashing of the target.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had announced the 100,000-tonne target during the 2026 budget debate. Panday said Mustapha assured the National Assembly that the fields and factories were in better condition and expressed confidence that the target would be achieved.
The first crop, however, produced 19,031 tonnes against a budgeted 29,376 tonnes – a deficit of 10,345 tonnes, or 35.2%.
Figures previously reported by Kiskadee Watch showed that Uitvlugt was the only estate to surpass its target. Albion, Rose Hall and Blairmont all fell short.
Panday said the minister had also told Parliament that corrective and remedial works had begun and that the factories would perform better than in previous years.
The former GuySuCo executive maintained that the factories still required substantial work if they were to operate efficiently during the grinding periods. “The main reasons are yield decline and the poor physical state of all the factories,” he said.
In an earlier interview with Kiskadee Watch, he had said that no major work had been done on any of the factories. He also cited poor logistics, late tendering and inadequate access to mechanical harvesters as constraints on production.
Panday rejected rainfall as a sufficient explanation for the poor results, arguing that production remained weak even when harvesting conditions were favourable.
The revised annual target comprises the 19,031 tonnes already produced and a projection of 39,106 tonnes for the second crop.
But letter writer Lancelot Hyman, in correspondence published by Kiskadee Watch on August 5, also contended that the second-crop target was unattainable. “This target is mathematically impossible,” he declared.
Hyman said information he received showed that none of the four factories was ready to grind as at August 4 and that no factory was expected to begin before August 15. He attributed the delay to procurement problems and the late arrival of critical replacement parts.
These assertions were based on information which Hyman said came from industry insiders.
According to his calculation, a mid-August start would leave approximately 15 weeks of crushing before the December rains and the customary movement of workers into Christmas-market activities.
At what he said was an industry maximum of 2,000 tonnes per week in optimal dry conditions, second-crop production would amount to around 30,000 tonnes – some 9,000 tonnes below the projection.
Panday, meanwhile, questioned how public funds pumped into the industry had been used.
He estimated that between 2020 and 2026 GuySuCo received more than $60 billion in government subventions and earned approximately another $60 billion from sales. With wages and salaries over the period estimated by him at around $70 billion, Panday said the corporation should explain the use of the remaining sums, particularly given the condition of its fields and factories. “GuySuCo needs to explain how the surplus [was] utilised,” he said.
Panday had previously called for GuySuCo’s board to be replaced and a 12-member committee of resident Guyanese to oversee a three-year recovery programme and report monthly to the Agriculture Minister.
He proposed that the committee include expertise in engineering, agriculture, economics, accounting, human resources, health and safety and sugar technology, along with opposition representation.
Panday has also said that GuySuCo should aim to cultivate approximately 20,000 hectares and produce 1.4 million tonnes of cane annually. At a recovery rate of 11 tonnes of cane to one tonne of sugar, he estimated this could yield around 130,000 tonnes of sugar and move the corporation towards break-even.
President Irfaan Ali has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with GuySuCo’s failure to meet its targets and has said that the significant public investment in the industry must produce measurable returns.
At the observance of the Enmore Martyrs anniversary in June, Ali said responsibility for reviving the industry did not rest with management alone. He invited the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union to take responsibility for managing an estate as a model, with government support.
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