Over One Million Tons of Sugar Cane to be Milled in 2022/2023 Crop Season  

Last night, we told you that the 2022/2023 sugar crop finally got underway, after the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and A.S.R./B.S.I. signed a one-year interim agreement. Farmers are now tasked with ensuring that they deliver their sugarcane to the mill before the start of the rainy season. The Sugar Cane Production Committee has estimated that around one point three million tons of sugarcane is available for milling. B.S.I. contends that the S.C.P.C.’s production estimate is inflated. Notwithstanding the differences in figures, to yield optimal quantity and quality of sugar the mill cannot afford to lose any more time, says Olivia Avilez, the Cane Farmers Relations Manager at A.S.R./B.S.I.

Olivia Avilez

Olivia Avilez, Cane Farmer Relations Manager, A.S.R./B.S.I.

“The SCPC has made an estimate of around one point three million tons and a little bit more. Our perspective on that is, again, every year; we have an inflated production estimate. And again, this year, we think that there has been a lot of impacts from flooding and stand-over cane which will not yield production estimate. And we’ve also had some impacts from frog hoppers, which are one of the key pests in the industry. So, with all of that, our estimate is around one point fifteen million tons of cane. When we lose, it’s not just days. We lose the amount of cane, for example, if we had started milling on three, five, we would have lost that by six or by eight, whichever number that you use. What is worse, when you don’t have your crop in the cycle is that you’re losing sugar, and you’re also impacting the following crop. For example, right now, the cane is already impacted. You have the stand-over cane that we didn’t mill last year because we had a really late start again. That was several weeks. So, you have that cane that’s already impacted, that’s going to start to come into the factory. You have less sugar from the year before, and you’re also having those fields being able to ratoon. And ratoons mean simply that when you cut it, it grows back like grass. So, you don’t have that production. You don’t have the sugar content that should have come in, and you also don’t have the optimal time of that cane because the maturity of that is long gone. So, when you’re calculating, or when you’re looking at the impact of not starting a crop season in time, you have to look at all of that factors.”