Sugar production at 60,204 tonnes – Mustapha
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha yesterday announced that sugar production for the year 2023 currently stands at 60,204 metric tonnes.
The minister spoke at a yearend press conference held at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Regent Street Office in Georgetown.
He said that this sugar production - 60,204 metric tonnes reflects a 28 per cent hike which marks an additional production of 13,155 metric tonnes when compared to 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022.
Mustapha noted that this year the government invested $8.1 billion to continue the revitalisation of Guyana’s sugar industry, which reflects a decrease of 22% when compared to 2022.
As such, in keeping with the government’s 2020 manifesto promise, Rose Hall Sugar Estate was re-opened on September 20, and the production at that commercial facility currently stands at 1,031 metric tonnes (MT).
Concerning the exportation of sugar, Mustapha said that 54% of sugar production was marketed as bagged or packaged in 2023, as compared to 48% in 2022.
He also remarked that the government is continuing the Land Conversion and Mechanization projects across the industry to convert over 5,000 hectares of land over the next two years.
Construction of the Albion and Blairmont packaging plants, which is geared at increasing the production of value-added packaged sugar has begun according to Mustapha.
The media was also informed about the launch of two new value-added packaged brands;
Albion Gems and Demerara Gold Sugar Sticks Sachets.
Employment
The government minister announced that as of December 2023, the industry currently employs 8,294 workers.
“Since taking office in 2020 we have employed 4,692 new employees.”
He noted that this year, the agriculture sector expanded significantly and continued to be a driver in the non-oil economy.
“We have kept our promise to resuscitate the traditional industries of rice and sugar and to transform non-traditional industries with new and emerging commodities,” the minister said.
He continued “With the focus now on expanding and further developing projects that commenced in 2020, [with] a $55
Billion allocation in 2023 for Guyana’s agricultural development. We have expended 97% of this.”
Rice industry
The Minister in directing his attention to the rice industry, assured that it remains an important pillar of the agriculture sector.
In 2023, this sector saw an increase in paddy production by 7% which translates to the production of 653,706 MT.
Mustapha said that this reflects an increase of 43,111 MT when compared to 610,595 in 2022.
He said that favourable weather conditions saw a yield increase from 6.2 tonnes per hectare in 2022 to 6.3 tonnes per hectare. According, to the Minister, Guyana earned approximately $45.2 billion in exports (US$210 million) in 2023. “This is over $3 billion when compared to 2022,” he stated.
Mustapha said that new market-based mechanisms were accessed during 2023 with counterparts in Sierra Leone and other countries. “Due to our groundbreaking research work with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) we launched our Zinc Enriched Rice - GRDB IICA-17 variety in October,” he underscored.
Stabroek News reported in October of this year that the Ministry of Agriculture had unveiled a new bio-fortified rice variety that is slated to offer more nutrition and higher yields benefitting both the farmer and the consumer.