Santander to Mill 50K Tonnes of Sugarcane for Northern Farmers

During this week’s cabinet meeting, the government authorized that fifty thousand tonnes of sugar cane from Orange Walk and Corozal sugarcane famers be delivered for milling by the Santander Sugar Group. According to a letter from C.E.O. Servulo Baeza of the Ministry of Agriculture, the reason is a shortfall in the amount being milled by B.S.I.  There is also sugarcane remaining in the cane fields to be delivered during the remainder of this grinding season, but B.S.I. will not be able to efficiently mill all available harvestable sugarcane from northern districts. Viewers may recall that the 2020-2021 harvest season started later than expected in December and there were weather issues.  Today, we spoke with Marcos Osorio of the Sugar Industry Control Board who praised G.O.B.’s decision.  He says B.S.I. has been milling six thousand four hundred tonnes daily, on average, although they had indicated at the start of the crop, they would be processing six thousand eight hundred.

Marcos Osorio, Chairman, Sugar Industry Control Board

“So we are falling short on average by almost four hundred tonnes daily from the days of crop that we have been delivering. So, days on the production estimate, crops started out with a production estimate of one million three hundred thousand tonnes of cane but in February the Minister had requested that we conduct a review of the production estimate and SIRDI came up with a revised production estimate of one million two hundred and forty thousand tonnes of canes. The mill issued a revised price estimate and in that revised they also indicate what they estimate to mill for the crop and in their second price estimate, they forecast to mill one million sixty tonnes of cane which has been raising concerns for the farmers and also the government.  This crop we have an improvement in production and the mill has not been meeting their milling targets and as a result of that when we do the numbers, if we are to end the harvest season June thirtieth we would see a hundred and twenty thousand tonnes of cane being left in the field unable to be delivered by farmers.  At the moment, we have quite a number of farmers who have delivered their production estimates and have canes left in the field. So, this decision comes in the best interest of farmers but overall in the interest of the industry. I believe this will generate an extra income for the local economy of the farmers. It is a situation where the farmers and the northern districts will have a significant benefit from this venture.”