Who We Are
The Guyana Sugar Corporation is the largest cultivator and producer of pure cane sugar in Guyana. On 21st May 1976, the Government of Guyana nationalized the sugar industry operated then by Booker Sugar Estates Limited and Jessels Holdings and merged the estates to form the Guyana Sugar Corporation Limited, which continued as Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. after the enactment of the Companies Act 1991. The Corporation is wholly owned by the Government of Guyana.
As per its Memorandum of Association, the scope of the Company includes but is not limited to sugar cane cultivation, raw sugar, and value-added products, as well as other agriculture commodities.
At present, the company’s primary activities are: sugar cane cultivation, production of pure cane sugar under world-renowned brands: Demerara Gold, Enmore Crystals, and molasses for the world’s finest – ‘El Dorado’ rum.
Our Mission
To be a world-class sugar industry producing high-quality sugar and added-value by-products while ensuring customer satisfaction, employee development, environment protection, and safe working practices. In so doing, we will achieve growth and sustained profitability in any foreseeable marketing situation to contribute to the economic and social development of Guyana.
Our Value Statement
To ensure a viable and sustainable sugar industry making a positive contribution to the growth and prosperity of Guyana. This will be achieved by the production of sugar and maximizing key value-added product returns using world-class standards and practices. At the same time, continuing the modernization of the industry to improve productivity and develop a motivated and dedicated team.
History of Sugar in Guyana
Guyana’s sugar industry was founded in 1658, before the settlement of the provinces of Demerara and Berbice, under the rule of the Dutch West Indian Company.
By 1759, there were 120 plantations along the banks of the Demerara River and 200 on the East Bank of Essequibo. The main crop was sugar, but there were smaller areas under coffee and ground crops. However, the inland plantations became increasingly unproductive, owing to years of continuous cropping with little or no attempt to maintain the fertility of the soil. The river soils began to be worked out, and, as labour increased, the river estates were gradually abandoned, and the planters wrested the coast from the sea and swamps and settled there. At the close of the 18th century, there were some 380 separate estates from the Corentyne to the Pomeroon.
In 1841, Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo were finally ceded to the British, and, under their rule, the sugar industry progressed so that ten years later, the colonies produced some 12 214 tons of sugar (the maximum production under the Dutch was 4 152 tons in 1778). By the beginning of the 19th century, there were nearly 400 plantations in Guyana.
The sugar companies pursued vigorously modernization, research, and new production techniques to increase efficiency. By 1967, there were eighteen (18) estates: Albion, Port Mourant, Blairmont, Providence, Diamond, Enmore, Lusignan, Houston, LBI, Ogle, Leonora, Rose Hall, Lochaber, Skeldon, Uitvlugt, Versailles and Wales serving eleven (11) factories, nine of which were owned and/or managed by Booker McConnell Limited, the other two, by the Demerara Company. Total acreage under cane cultivation in 1967, including fallow land, was 113 474 acres; sugar production for that year (1967) was 343 922 tons (this compares with the 1950 figure of 195 652 tons and the 1975 figure of 300 350 tons).
In 1973, the ownership of the sugar industry was in the hands of two London-based companies – Jessels Securities which owned two factories and accounted for about fifteen percent (15%) of the total sugar production; five percent (5%) was produced by an independent Guyanese factory, owned by the Vieiras and eighty percent (80%) by Booker McConnell.
Two years later, the Demerara Company estates were nationalized forming DEMSUCO.
In a decisive move along the road towards owning and controlling all the resources of the nation, the Guyana Government acquired the Booker Sugar Estates in Guyana on 21st May 1976.
To these were added the two nationalized Demerara Sugar Company estates to form, an amalgamation, the Guyana Sugar Corporation – GUYSUCO – comprising six estates of Skeldon, the East Berbice Estate (merging of Albion/Port Mourant & Rose Hall), Blairmont, the East Demerara Estate (amalgamation Enmore, LBI/Diamond Estates), Wales and Uitvlugt/ Leonora.
Historically sugar played and continues to influence not only the national economy of Guyana but rural village economies, primarily in Demerara and Berbice. Since its incorporation in 1976, GuySuCo exported primarily bulk sugar internationally with little emphasis on value-added production. As a result of the collapse of EU preferential market in the early 2000s, Guyana faced several challenges including the competitivity of its sugar with world market prices and costs of production.
This paradigm shift affected the socio-economic, conditions in Guyana, During the period 2015-2019, several Estates including Enmore, Rose Hall, Wales and Skeldon were decommissioned by A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) led Government leaving Blairmont, Uitvlugt and Albion as the only grinding estates of the Corporation.
In 2020, after the election of the People Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) led Government, much-needed financial resources were injected into the Industry with an aim at resuscitating Rose Hall estate in 2023 and Enmore and Skeldon Estates in the near future.