By Marvin Cato | HGPTV Nightly News
The Minister of Agriculture has expressed confidence that the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is on course for growth and modernization in 2026, even as critics continue to question whether the industry’s performance justifies continued heavy state investment.
During his presentation on the allocations for the sugar sector, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said government remains committed to transforming Guyana into a leading food-producing nation in the Caribbean and believes the sugar industry is central to that vision.
According to the Minister, GuySuCo recorded a 26.5 percent increase in sugar production in 2025, yielding approximately 59,600 tonnes. For 2026, government has set an ambitious production target of 100,041 tonnes, representing a projected growth of 67.9 percent.
To support this push, $13.4 billion has been allocated to the sugar industry in the 2026 national budget. Minister Mustapha said the investment will be used to modernize factories, expand value-added production, and accelerate the transition to mechanized harvesting across more than 3,000 hectares of cane fields.
He also pointed to ongoing and prospective private investments, including refinery development, which he believes will provide ready markets for locally produced sugar and strengthen the industry’s long-term prospects.
However, economic analysts and opposition critics argue that the optimism is not supported by the numbers. They contend that GuySuCo continues to operate at a significant loss, estimating that the corporation loses roughly $240 on every pound of sugar produced when production costs are compared to world market prices.
Critics have also challenged the government’s claim of growth in 2025, noting that production targets for that year were revised downward on two separate occasions, raising questions about whether the reported increase represents genuine expansion or adjusted benchmarks.
Additionally, while the wider agriculture sector is projected to grow by 7.6 percent in 2026—down from 11.5 percent in 2025—skeptics argue that continued large allocations to sugar, without corresponding management reforms, risk diverting resources from more viable agricultural subsectors.
Opposition figures have long called for the “right-sizing” of the sugar industry, along with stronger accountability measures for GuySuCo’s management. To date, there has been little public criticism directed at the corporation’s leadership, a point that commentators say undermines confidence in meaningful reform.
As government presses ahead with its modernization agenda, the debate continues over whether GuySuCo is truly on the brink of a turnaround, or whether taxpayers are once again being asked to underwrite an industry that has yet to demonstrate sustainable profitability.
