Guatemalan Sugar Company shows interest in inesting in GUYSUCO.

A large scale sugar company in Guatemala is in talks with the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo)  that could lead to investments here.

The industry, faced with constant protests and absenteeism by sugar workers, last year recorded its worst production figures in two decades—186,807 tonnes.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, said that the company, San Diego, with factories branded “Trinidad” has expressed interest in getting into sugar cultivation and setting up their operations here.
“The authorities in Guysuco are already in touch with a company in Guatemala who has shown a keen interest in working in the sugar sector in Guyana. We hope that those discussions would be fruitful,” she told a press conference at her Takuba Lodge office in Georgetown.

She said the company has requested information from GuySuCo and so the talks are an early stage.
“We need to engage with countries that have been doing well in the sugar sector and Guatemala is right up on top,” Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said. She noted that Guatemala records the third highest sugar production figures.

The government, in August 2009, commissioned the new Skeldon factory, at a cost of US$181 million, hailing it as the boon to the survival of the sugar industry. But the factory has failed to live up to expectations.
The new factory was intended to increase national production to more than 450,000 tonnes.

President Donald Ramotar recently said that he was not opposed to foreign technical assistance for GuySuCo and said that he will shortly appoint the current overseas-based Chairman as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.