The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) on Monday said it lost $37.9M as a result of 50 strike actions during the first crop of 2020.
Providing a breakdown, the Corporation in a statement said there were 27 strikes at the Blairmont Estate resulting in a loss of $13.6M, six at Uitvlugt Estate resulting in a loss of $4.2 M and 17 at Albion/Port Mourant resulting in a loss of $20.1 M.
Total production loss industry-wide as a result of the man-days loss was 2,307 tonnes of sugar. The first crop was completed in June.
The total production achieved was 37,015 tonnes of sugar – 9,461 less than the target of 46,476 tonnes of sugar.
GuySuCo said the crop was closed with 1,093 Hectares (762 Hectares at Albion/Port Mourant Estate and 331 Hectares at Blairmont Estate) of carryover canes to be harvested.
This translates to 66,000 tonnes of cane that will be carried over to the Second Crop of 2020 which starts this week.
The actual sugar cane processed for the first crop is 492,910, as against the budgeted 539,460.
The budgeted molasses was 19,624 while the actual production was 21,194; a surplus of 1,569.
The average Harvester attendance for the crop was 54.3% across the industry which was impacted by the circumstances surrounding the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This also resulted in employees being off of work for two weeks and contributed to the shortfall.
GuySuCo said it continues to strengthen its partnership with the unions and sees them as valuable partners for the achievement of the target in the second crop for 2020 and towards building a more resilient business.
The corporation is currently working on a campaign “I believe in GuySuCo” to get workers buy-in on its five year strategic plan.
