Guysuco launches Demerara Gold
-packaged, quality sugar
By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
April 10, 2003
The Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guysuco) yesterday launched "Demerara Gold," the first in a series of branded sugars to be introduced by the company under the name Genuine Demerara Cane Sugar.
Developed as part of Guysuco's strategic plan to enhance the company's overall viability, Demerara Gold will be distributed domestically, regionally and to international markets in North America and the European Union.
According to Guysuco's Director of Administration and Marketing, Nisa Surujbally, the product was conceptualised only a few months ago. She said after having discovered that a lot of buyers had been packaging and selling Guysuco's sugar, the company decided to do the same and the product was developed after an assessment of the market.
"We knew we had the name, we looked at quality, we did a market survey looking at light sugar against dark sugar and we came up with the product." And she added that Guysuco intended to trademark the product in every country that it is placed in.
She noted too that food quality was now a demand of consumers and she emphasised that the product was natural cane sugar, with no chemical additives. Demerara Light, Demerara Dark and Demerara White or Refined, are among other products which will follow.
Bryden and Fernandes and Geddes Grant Guyana Limited, will distribute the product locally, while Gopaul and Company Ltd has been chosen as the distributor for Trinidad and Tobago.
Guysuco is on the verge of identifying distributors in Antigua, Suriname and the Bahamas.
Delivering a presentation on realising the vision of the company, Chairman Vickram Oditt said the sugar industry had remained the linchpin of Guyana's economy. Accounting for 20% of the GDP, Guysuco produced 331,000 tonnes of sugar last year, as compared to 129,000 tonnes in 1990.
Guysuco's share of the GDP was largely as a result of the preferential prices paid by European countries, which represent Guysuco's largest market. How-ever, he said since these agreements were under threat the company had chosen to develop a vision for the way forward.
He said the product represented a major change in culture with regards to the way the produce was handled.
"We have been accustomed over the years to handling our sugar any old way, for example dumping it onto a concrete floor, since it was going to Europe to be refined."
Now he said care was given to the handling of the product since it would be going directly from the factories "into someone's cup of tea or coffee."
Declaring that the company would continue to add value to its products, Oditt said Guysuco was working on a joint venture arrangement for a distillery and was pursuing plans for a co-generation plant and refinery, to capture the market which exists in the Region for refined sugar.
Minister of Agriculture Navin Chanderpal, delivered the feature address at yesterday's launching.
