Third Payment for Sugar Increase By 30% for Cane Farmers
Sugar cane farmers in the north are being paid thirty percent more per ton of cane than last year’s payment. On Monday, A.S.R./B.S.I. announced its third payment to sugar cane farmers. According to a release from the company, farmers were paid seventy dollars and seventy-eight cents per ton of cane as a final cane price. This is said to be an improvement of sixteen dollars and twenty-two cents or a thirty percent increase when compared to the third payment in 2021. B.S.I. says this is largely due to the company’s investment to improve raw sugar and molasses efficiencies, increased direct consumption sugar production and improved sugar prices. So, what does the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association think about the increase? We spoke via phone with Alfredo Ortega, the chairman of the association’s Committee of Management.
On the phone: Alfredo Ortega
On the phone: Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A.
“As you know, yes any increase in the price of cane is an improvement and yes it is happily accepted by the farmers. Nevertheless, we do believe that those prices could have been much better. It is true it went sixteen dollars above last year, but it is a situation in regards to market prices that increased the price for ton of cane. Also TC/TS played an important role in this issue whereby we managed to garner this price as they mentioned, the third payment was done to the farmers. Yes, we accept that there was an increase, but we do believe when we see our brothers around us, the amount that they get is much higher than the seventy dollars being paid to us in Belize. Our brother in Obregon on the next side of the river they got this year a hundred and seventy Belize dollars per ton. It is in the vicinity of nine hundred and ten pesos per ton of cane. When you do the conversion it is over a hundred dollars per ton. When we speak about our brothers in Guatemala, they are above eighty Belize dollars for price of cane. Around us the prices are higher than what we are getting. So, we do believe that there can be more improvements than what Is being paid to us at this point.”
