Not all lost with sugar -Dr Duncan
Stabroek News
July 28, 2004
Guyana still has strong prospects in sugar though it will have to increase its efficiency if it is to be internationally competitive given proposed price cuts in Europe.
So says Dr. Neville Duncan, University of the West Indies (UWI) professor and the director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Research, at UWI's Mona Campus in Jamaica.
Speaking with journalists last week while on a visit to Guyana, Duncan said Guyana's production methods have been more efficient than the rest of the Caribbean sugar producers. He said of all the Caribbean producers Guyana will be the one best able to hold its own. However, he said, "it still needs to improve that efficiency considerably because the truth is Australia has been increasing the acreage under (sugar) production and it does so infinitely cheaper than even Guyana." But he adds that if the rest of the Caribbean stops production, Guyana would have its own market and the resulting increased production could help it to increase its efficiency significantly enough for the country to have a world market presence and to be highly competitive.