Sugar Cane Crop Season Kicks Off Without Delays for the First Time Since 2020

The 2024-2025 sugar cane crop season officially opened on Friday, marking the first time since 2020 that the season kicked off without significant delays. The season got underway last week with the delivery of sugar cane to the Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) factory in Tower Hill. Fortunately, this year, there were no protests or blockages, which had arisen in the past from disputes between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) and BSI. While the crop was slightly delayed due to recent rains, the cane delivery has been underway since Friday. BSI’s Director of Finance Shawn Chavarria noted that while there are concerns over a decrease in production for this season, projections are still pointing at a successful year.  He did note, however, that the spread of fusarium disease affecting much of the northern cane crop, coupled with bad sugar roads are the main concerns at this time. 

Shawn Chavaria, Director of Finance, BSI: “Symbolically it’s a good day in that we have an agreement with all our associations which paves the way for the crop. That’s really the most important thing you need to have a successful crop. If you have an agreement with all your associations for the cane that makes planning the crop much easier. I think we certainly know what are the challenges this year, we’ve heard from farmer and their leaders that sugar roads are in a bad state and that’s making it difficult to get the cane in so we’re expecting that today might be a very slow day in that respect. We know as well about the disease fusarium which will result in lower quality cane so what we need to ensure from the mill standpoint is that the mill has been maintained properly so that we can deal with this cane from our standpoint we’ve done that. We’ve put in about $14 million Belize dollars just in out of crop replacement of maintenance equipment and general maintenance to get the crop and the mill ready for today. In the background you can see that both boilers are online. In previous years when we were doing these major capital projects we had started with only one, this year we have both boilers ready, we have both turbines ready so from our standpoint we’re ready it’s a matter of trying to manage the cane that is going to come in, the quality and try to maximize the sucrose content inside that cane as best as we can. So we need to work with all the harvesting group leaders and farmers to make sure that they bring the freshest cane possible so that we can maximize the sucrose in the cane. Typically the cane quality is on the lower end at the start of the crop but really it’s worse at the end. So you’re still better off making an early start, yes you will have some challenges with mud but as the weeks go by because December the rainfall diminishes significantly you see an improvement.”

Leaders of the country’s four sugar cane farmers’ associations gathered in solidarity at a media event on Friday, expressing optimism for a good crop season despite existing challenges. Alfredo Ortega, BSCFA’s Chairman of Management, and Vladimir Pook, Chairman of the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers, spoke about this year’s peaceful start and touched on issues facing farmers.

Alfredo Ortega, Committee of Management, BSCFA: “Well as you know last year we signed a two year extension addendum of the agreement so this year we don’t have anything to sign. We are already in peace for this year as you rightly said so we have to continue and when time comes that we need to negotiate then we will start negotiating again with the mill. So at this point in time everything is okay between us. We have signed for at least this coming year again so we need to work in peace because at the very end what we need to see is that our farmers really get the benefit of their labour.”

Vladimir Pook, Chairman, Corozal Sugar Cane Producers: “This symbolic opening is very important. It shows unity. The four associations we came here today and do what is best for our cane farmers to the start of the crop. It’s a very challenging crop coming ahead. Reasons; weather, roads, the fusarium as you all know and other pests that have been affecting the industry. But I think that at this point in time there’s one reason why today it looks a little bit sad I can say at the beginning of the crop, I don’t see many trucks as we normally do and that is contributed mostly to the roads. The pests well that has done its damage but now it’s time to deliver and we wanted to have an early start, unfortunately well the authorities did not prioritize on that. Well I recall various meetings where as stakeholders we presented to the chairman of the Sugar Industry Control Board months ago where we said it’s easier to maintain a road rather than to wait until and fix it at the end of the last minute. So we have those in our minutes I can recall those meetings but not much attention was put to it so I think that to start fixing the road at this point in time it will be more costly and cane farmers will lose because everyday that passes starting right now will be cane left outside.”

BSI boasted that the past 2023/2024 crop season was a landmark year that saw record-breaking cane prices and the largest raw sugar export in the country’s history.