Belize receives increase in E.U. sugar quota

Pundits have declared the death of Belize’s sugar industry countless times over the last two decades but recent developments indicate that not only is sugar alive and kicking, it is showing signs of prosperity. The most recent good news comes in the form of a permanent increase of almost twenty percent in Belize’s export quota to the European Union. Despite continuing decreases in the level of subsidies on E.U. sugar imports from its former colonies, the quota hike of eight thousand tons per year works out to a bonus of around four million Belize dollars when compared with what Belize would have received on the lower priced world market. The additional allotment came about when St. Kitts ceased sugar production and its quota was divided equally within the Caribbean region between Belize and Guyana. Belize’s quota to the E.U. is now an even fifty thousand tons.

Even without the extra tonnage, Belize’s sugar industry was on the upswing with special temporary quota increases being provided by Europe and the U.S.A. to the point where last year Belize did not have to sell any sugar on the world market. Strong sales to CARICOM and the local market made up the balance of Belize’s one hundred and fifteen thousand tons of sugar sales, with total revenues reaching one hundred and eleven million Belize dollars in 2006, up from seventy-eight million the year before. Projections for 2007 call for just under last year’s level based on the continued strength of the Euro, currently trading at around one point three to the U.S. dollar.