Cane farmers put hold on sugar season
Sugar may be Belize’s biggest agricultural product, but the opening of this year’s crop will not begin on schedule. Cane farmers are unhappy with the estimated price of just over thirty-eight dollars per ton of cane and the management of the Corozal and Orange Walk divisions of the Cane Farmers Association have notified both Government and Belize Sugar Industries that no cane will be delivered until the price goes up. Specific demands by the farmers to improve their situation include an increase in the price of locally marketed sugar, a bigger share for farmers in the revenue split with BSI, and dispersement of two million dollars now held in the Sugar Price Stabilization Fund. Government has been in discussion with the Cane Farmers Association, but has not officially commented on the situation. The Minister of Sugar Industry, Valdemar Castillo, did not return calls made by News 5 to his Belmopan office today.
For its part, Belize Sugar Industries is in sympathy with at least one of the cane farmers’ complaints. BSI Managing Director, Joey Montalvo, agreed that the control price of local sugar is long overdue for a raise. Montalvo told News 5 that a ten cent increase per pound sugar sold domestically would still leave Belizean sugar the cheapest in the region, but add as much as two dollars per ton to the price of cane received by farmers. Consumers in the Caribbean and Central America pay as much as ninety cents per pound for plantation white sugar, while Belizeans currently pay only thirty-five cents. Belize even exported bagged sugar this year to Jamaica and Guyana, where merchants sold it for prices much higher than it is sold in Belize.
But while admitting that times were tough right now in the sugar industry, Montalvo emphasized that stopping production was not the answer. “This year’s crop cannot be held hostage,” he said “the industry and government can work through these problems, but it’s got to be on the basis of moving forward.”
Other problems facing the sugar industry besides low world prices are the weakness of the Euro, oversupply in the U.S., slack demand for molasses and crop damage caused by Hurricane Keith. Cane deliveries could have started today and it is not certain when or if the trucks will start to roll. BSI can mobilise the factory on as little as a day’s notice.
