Georgetown: The Guyana government will take assistance from Guatemala to revitalize the sugar industry of the country, said President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Sunday.
Guatemala is the second-largest sugar producer and exporter in Latin and Central America and the fourth-largest exporter of sugar in the world. It has generated 80,000 direct and 410,000 indirect jobs in the sugar sector, said the president.
Sharing the information during a press conference, the President informed that Guyana recently participated in the Thirty-Third Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM heads of government in Belize.
As many as 11 sugar mills of Guatemala help the country earn over US$1 billion by exporting sugar. The area under cane cultivation in Guatemala is 251,000 hectares and the yield is 10.7 metric tonnes per hectare. In Guyana, 49,000 hectares of land are under cane cultivation and yielding about five tonnes per hectare.
“We are expecting help from Guatemala to improve management, operations and increase output as well as generate employment,” said the President.
As a promise to help the sugar industry grow, the government has allotted $6 billion in the 2022 budget to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
