Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Assn says farmers are losing millions
Two industries, the source of major foreign exchange earnings, are experiencing setbacks; that’s the citrus industry in the south and the sugar industry in the north. Caneros are irate over the slow processing of sugarcane at the mill of the Belize Sugar Industries Limited at Tower Hill. The farmers say that for the past four weeks they have been losing money because the processor at BSI has constantly been stalling. The result – a multitude of hiccups. Marion Ali headed to Sugar City today and found out that millions of dollars are being lost.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The long line of cane trucks waiting to deliver sugarcane today extended for close to a mile. The cane farmers say they have been at the same location for many days.
Jose Mai, Cane farmer
“The cold fronts, these gentlemen are out here day and night. Some people are here for five days now and those from Corozal have to go and come, it is not good for them. So I believe that there must be another system what we can do to alleviate the situation. I believe that maybe we should reschedule the deliveries.”
Cornelio Uh, Cane Farmer
“I reach yah from Sunday bout three o’clock and right now I’m still here.”
Conrado Cuellar, Cane farmer
“The problem is the factory can’t grind the cane, ih can’t get the pressure fi cook di cane.”
Marion Ali
“How long you guys have to be out here doing this, waiting?”
Enzor Muniz, Employee, Belize Cane Farmers Assn.
“Two, three days for one trip.”
Marion Ali
“Do you know when you’re going in?”
Arnulfo Kan, Cane Farmer
“This afternoon at four o’clock.”
But the wait is the least of the problems these cane farmers face.
Conrado Cuellar
“Four weeks right now, everyday ih bruk. Dat dah di problem we have. I don’t know what dehn wah do but we lose money.”
Marion Ali
“What happens to the sugarcane while it sits here and waits?”
Cornelio Uh
“It spoils. When the cane reach the factory it have no sugar, lone bagasse.”
Enzor Muniz is employed with the Cane Farmer Association to hand out tickets to the farmers in the order they will deliver their cane. Even though his job differs slightly from the rest, he too says the process is discouraging.
Enzor Muniz
“Yeah. We put it on the ticket. After that we just put it as how they should go in the line.”
Marion Ali
“How does it look today, is it a normal day for delivery?”
Enzor Muniz
“Not normal because a normal day is three thousand ton and these days it is only receiving half.”
That yield is sure to affect the families of the farmers.
Edwin Noh, Employee, Cane Farmers Assn.
“Right now we noh wah missing nothing. When the bonus, that wah be di pressure.”
Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Orange Walk Cane Farmers Assn.
“Yesterday our chemist sat down and take out the numbers in a difference of what has happened from last crop to this crop to the same date and the loss—not losses but money that is not injected into the economy is over three million dollars – three point four million dollars because of this problem that we are facing right now with BSI.”
Chairman of the Orange Walk Cane Farmers Association, Alfredo Ortega says their meetings with Belize Sugar Industries officials since the problem started have resulted in nothing meaningful.
Alfredo Ortega
“They have been experiencing problems with Belcogen and with the shredder that they have put into the mill but from there they are just saying that tomorrow it will be better and tomorrow it will be better and until today nothing has been done as yet. We are not getting a frank word from BSI that this will be dealt with within the next ten or within the next month, we are not getting that from them.”
The whole problem started when BSI’s BELCOGEN project failed to kick off on January first as was scheduled. But according to Cane Farmers Association Chief Executive Officer, David Madrid, if BSI had taken his advice, the problem would not be so severe right now.
David Madrid, CEO, Belize Sugarcane Farmers Assn.
“They have implemented a new system, it’s BELCOGEN, it’s where what used to be called waste is now a bi-product and it runs their steam. It creates electricity and the steam gets pushed into BSI, BSI is able to process the sugar. But BELCOGEN is not operating properly as of yet. In the very beginning I had told them that they should not dismantle the old way of processing the sugar for a new way. Just because you invested a hundred and fifty million dollars does not mean it’s going to work. Instead they dismantled it and went with the new system and now the cane farmers are suffering.”
But the cane farmers’ hope is that they will not have to suffer for many more nights in the cold or chew on sugarcane during the afternoon lunch hour as they wait to deliver crop that is literally deteriorating before their eyes. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
A meeting is expected to take place on Friday between BSI and Government officials when a foreign expert will make an analysis of the current problem. News Five has been trying, without success, to reach BSI for comment since Tuesday.
