(GEORGETOWN) - Faced with low production due to poor weather and frequent strikes, Guyana has stopped selling sugar to the Caribbean and will focus on the more lucrative EU market, a top official said here.

"We are not selling any sugar to our Caricom (Caribbean Community) customers at this moment," Paul Bhim, the acting head of the state-run sugar company, said Thursday.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation -- which has been dogged by high fuel and fertilizer costs linked to rising international oil prices -- has sold 105,000 of the 231,000 tonne quota to Europe for this year, Bhim said.

The company is rushing to meet a September 30 deadline, after which prices for Guyana's sugar drop by nine percent under a new World Trade Organization (WTO) compatible agreement, Bhim said.

Unseasonable and unusually heavy rainfall have hurt the sugar industry, resulting in lower than expected production.

And a two-day strike by some 2,500 sugar industry workers seeking a 15 percent pay raise resulted in the loss of production of 1,050 metric tonnes of sugar cane, Bhim said.

Guyana last year shipped at least 40,000 tonnes of sugar to members of the 15-nation Caricom.

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