Santander Begins Harvest
There are two sugar producing companies in Belize, A.S.R./B.S.I. in the north and then there is the Santander Sugar Group which has its operations located near Valley of Peace in the West. The company has been producing sugar for four years; it has invested five hundred million dollars and has introduced cutting edge technology in sugar production. In the next two years, Santander plans to increase production dramatically to one hundred thousand metric tons of sugar. This morning, the company laid out its plans to the media, News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
2016 saw the introduction of the Santander Sugar factory in Belize. Santander Sugar is a family group of investors; it has a sugar production factory in the west and three subsidiaries to oversee the operations of the sugar mill, agricultural and cane plantations and a co-generation plant.
David Rodriguez
David Rodriguez, C.F.O., Santander Sugar Group
“We are here in Belize to give back and to add to the industry and all our missions, visions and core values are oriented to excellence. We are here to help the industry and position the industry as the leader in the region and to get more competitiveness and benefit all the stakeholders that participate in the industry.”
Santander Sugar ushered in change in the sugar industry in Belize. It is the first company in the Central America and Caribbean regions that is using full mechanized harvesting.
David Rodriguez
“We are innovating and implementing some activities different from what normally this industry is accustomed to especially in the harvesting operations. We are the only company from Mexico to Panama, including the Caribbean, that harvest a hundred percent, a hundred percent mechanized all the cane. This is a major improvement for the industry because it does not only give a competitive edge compared to other sugar industries in cost but also gives the opportunity to our employees who are our most valuable asset to have much more better conditions, not only in income but in working conditions like operating machinery that is valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Santander Chief Financial Officer, David Rodriguez says that the company has invested more than five hundred million dollars in Belize. The company employs seven hundred and fifty persons, of which one hundred and eighty one are foreigners, who receive on the job training. The working conditions are described as ‘not harsh’ and ‘not fully manual’. Santander produces raw sugar, brown sugar, plantation white sugar, molasses and renewable energy. Last year it managed to harvest four hundred and seventy seven thousand metric tons of sugar cane, producing forty four thousand metric tons of sugar. For this year’s harvest, Santander is projecting a production of fifty seven thousand metric tons of sugar.
Jose Rodriguez
Jose Rodriguez, C.E.O., Santander Sugar Group
“The company has been increasing the area of production. We have twenty-two thousand acres in production and we are aiming to get at least forty thousand acres to be able to have a sustainable operation.”
David Rodriguez
“We have taken a big hit in the prices with liberation of quota production of sugar within Europe. Last year we did twenty five percent of our production we exported it into CARICOM. This is a big increase because starting from zero in one year we got a share of twenty five percent of our production and I think we are the sugar mill that has one of the most important shares in that market. The other seventy five percent of the production was sold in the European market.”
2019’s drought that devastated agricultural lands in the north did not cause detrimental effects to Santander’s sugar crop. The company wants to increase production to one hundred thousand metric tons of sugar in the next two years.
Jose Rodriguez
“The area where we are established is an area that has a water table very high so the type of soil is heavy placed with a water table that is very high and the area’s biggest problem in the draining. The water availability in the soil is very high and the drought will affect you less.”
Enrique Sanchez
Enrique Sanchez, Agriculture Manager, Santander Sugar Group
“Our soils are heavy clay. Heavy clay has the particularity of having very fine particles. Very fine particles have the ability to catch more water and retain more water during the periods that are very dry. For example our soils got loaded of water during the rains and when we had the drought a lot of that water was available for the crop to have it. Also we implemented new activities that helped us fight the drought. For example, we used subsoilers which make cracks in the soil and increase the porosity of the soil. With more porosity you can have more water for tougher times or for drought periods.”
Jose Rodriguez
“We saw an opportunity of developing an industry here that has been developing in other countries. We are not inventing nothing. We are just working hard and applying the technologies available and Belize presented to us the best choice, the legal certainties and other things that are very important for an investment like this.”
David Rodriguez
“We as a company are still getting in the volumes of production. Our objective is to grind one million metric tons of cane to produce nearly one hundred thousand metric tons of sugar.”
The zafra began on February twentieth and will end in one hundred and thirty days. Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
