B.S.I. Says B.S.C.F.A.’s Regional Sugar Cane Price Comparisons is “Misleading”
In discussing the financial benefits to farmers as a result of B.S.I.’s move to the Port of Big Creek, McLachlan noted that farmers were able to save just over three million dollars, which translated to an increase in cane price by two dollars. Additionally, B.S.I.’s investment in value added direct consumption sugar in 2021 earned farmers an additional four dollars and ninety six cent per ton of cane, says McLachlan. Now, farmers are paying an annual manufacturing allowance to the mill, but, according to B.S.I., revenues remain higher.
Mac McLachlan
Mac McLachlan, V.P. Intl Relations, A.S.R./B.S.I.
“The heart of the problem here is very low cane productivity in the cane farm and very inefficient way of harvesting and delivering that cane. The average cane yield per acre in Belize hasn’t changed much over the last ten years. It is still about seventeen tons per acre. The regional average is about thirty-five ton per acre. If you think about it, the more cane you grow on a piece of land the more revenue you receive, because you have a lot more cane and you are only putting the same inputs in to that piece of land. Similarly, harvest and delivery is something that really needs to be completely changed and improved because at the moment farmers have to pay a tremendous about of money to deliver their cane, which isn’t the same in other industries.”
Reporter
“He was comparing what the earnings are in our neighboring countries as evidence and proof as to why the price Belizean farmers earned could have been higher.”
Mac McLachlan
“It is not just false, it is misleading and detrimental to the process. Remember, Mexico has a population of a hundred and four million people all consuming sugar. The Mexican industry is designed to produce sufficient amounts of sugar for the Mexican market and the United States. Both have sugar prices in excess of thirty two cents a pound, U.S. dollars, when the global price is around eighteen cents a pound. We are exposed eighty percent to the global market and that has a direct impact on the cane price. It is what we earn from sugar that then equates to the value shared to what is paid for sugar cane. If we were earning thirty two cents for the pound of all our sugar sure we could pay a hundred dollars for the cane price. But, it is a completely erroneous analogy and I am disturbed and I know the chairman of the B.S.C.F.A. knows that.”
