On Tuesday News Five showed you firsthand the hopes and dreams of farmers in the San Carlos area of Orange Walk, who are hoping they will be able to get their crops to market without interference in the form of additional import licenses, higher taxes on fuel and poor infrastructure. But there is another issue […]
San Carlos is a collective, cooperative farming community of twenty-four farmers. It has running water and a small school but no electricity. Nonetheless, it has been extremely productive in past years, owing in no small part to the ingenuity of its farmers. It has in the past faced severe losses in production of onions, carrots […]
While vegetables and staples may pay the bills, sugar cane is still king in the North. The sugar industry, which came off one of its best years in memory in terms of cane milled and tons produced, is now starting to move into direct consumption sugar production and sales. And the early figures from Tower […]
You probably grumbled a bit recently when it was announced that prices for kerosene, premium and diesel fuel and butane went up. But while most urban Belizeans get butane for their houses on average every month or so and gas up when they can, it’s a different story for farmers in the North. There, butane […]
The Government of Belize recently promised as much as three hundred thousand dollars to fix sugar roads in the North. These roads provide access and transportation from many of the remote villages for farmers bringing crops to market, or sugar to the mill. But quite a few are in poor condition, and in the case […]
Have you ever wanted to grow your own vegetables or herbs at home but haven’t been able to because you don’t have the space to do it? If so, hydroponic gardening could be the answer you’ve been looking for. It is a more sustainable approach to resource use than traditional farming. Hydroponics, simply put, is the […]
The new sugar crop got off to a good start this morning at Tower Hill where relations between millers and farmers seem to be on a good footing. A projected one million three hundred thousand tons of sugar are to be produced during the seven-month crop. News Five’s Duane Moody reports. Duane Moody, Reporting […]
An initiative to strengthen food security programs has been ongoing since April 2016. Phase three of that project which involves its implementation stage was launched today in Belmopan between the Government, Mexico and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The project extends to other Central American countries. In Belize, four Roman Catholic Schools will benefit, namely, […]
While it may have gone under the radar during the news last week, News Five has confirmed that the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association and American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited have signed an agreement on amendments to their commercial agreement. Back on September eighteenth, A.S.R./B.S.I. broke ground for an upgrade to the Tower Hill […]
The long-awaited upgrade to the Tower Hill sugar factory is to get underway despite misgivings from a major corner of the industry. After a record-breaking crop year, and ahead of the point where they could opt out of a seven-year commercial agreement with American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association […]
The first issue raised on the adjournment of the House was the ongoing impasse between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited. The Association last month wrote the millers announcing that while it supports the investment of twenty-two million dollars for production of direct consumption and value-added sugars at […]
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association has officially written to American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited, announcing that while it supports the investment of twenty-two million dollars for production of direct consumption, value-added sugars at the Tower Hill factory, it wants several amendments to the existing commercial agreement and a chance to negotiate same before […]
At the start of the sugar crop last December, farmer Eloy Escalante was effectively disowned by the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association. The Association was facing a third suspension in eight years from Fairtrade after it was discovered that a “phantom farmer” – the son of Government minister Edmond Castro – was granted administration of […]
Back in 2015, villages surrounding Belmopan had a spiraling in crime committed by youths. After assessing the issue, the Belmopan Police decided to do a program to engage young people to offer them an alternative to crime. Youth Engaged in Agriculture was piloted last summer as an initiative where youths from Belmopan and surrounding communities […]
This week, Belize Sugar Industries Limited’s managers and senior officials are in meetings in Orange Walk Town, reviewing the recently gone sugar cane milling season. It was a record-breaking and successful season beyond the industry’s imagination. Prices of fifty-seven dollars per ton of cane, while not reaching the lofty heights of neighbors Mexico or elsewhere, […]
Seven years ago, the Belize Co-Generation Energy Project kicked off at Tower Hill, Orange Walk. It uses bagasse from milled sugar to provide up to twenty-five megawatts of electricity for the national electricity grid and another five for the B.S.I. plant itself. But there are concerns that the plant has not been reaching capacity and […]
On average, four and a half million dollars is spent by government annually as it relates to subsidies on diesel fuel for the sugar industry. It is shared among all cane farmers, including miller American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries, which has its own fields. Now there are reports that it could be under threat as […]
The Opposition People’s United Party has been closely following the sugar situation. Following a record-breaking crop year and in advance of an expected downturn in prices with the leveling of the European market, American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries is asking farmers to proceed with the remainder of the current commercial agreement. While two of the […]
Mai does have some suggestions for the commercial agreement. He wants it ironclad that, with the accompanying investments in the sugar mill, that not a stalk of cane is left in any field in Orange Walk or Corozal – it should all be ground at Tower Hill. A.S.R./B.S.I., he told us, should take every opportunity […]
The Prime Minister also weighed in, reiterating the importance of ASR’s investment in the industry and particularly in the Tower Hill sugar mill to introduce production of direct consumption sugar for the European and Caribbean markets. He said that he would prefer not to have to intervene directly as he did three years ago to […]
Will a twenty-two million dollar investment in the Tower Hill sugar mill proceed? American Sugar Refining/Belize Sugar Industries Limited and the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association are butting heads over some amendments to the current commercial agreement. B.S.I. wants to “amend the 2015 cane purchase agreement to remove the opt-out clause allowing either side to […]
The majority of businesses are micro, small and medium enterprises, known as MSME’s. These businesses help drive the engine of an economy and provide jobs especially at the start-up level. But while they may prove innovative and creative in their ways of thinking, they often suffer from general lack of access to financing and especially […]
Recognition was given today to fisher folks for their contribution to the growth of the fishing industry, which directly benefits at least four percent of the population. Three fishermen were singled out for their leadership roles within their communities. Leobihildo Tamai has spent his life at sea; he hails from Sarteneja and is Fisher of […]
Almost a year ago, Belize Sugar Industries Limited lost over two thousand, six hundred tons of molasses due to a first-of-its-kind Maillard Reaction inside its tanks at Tower Hill. The initial loss had been closer to four thousand tons but about a third was eventually recovered. The company attempted to have the Belize Sugar Cane […]
A Women in Fisheries Forum was held today at the Biltmore Plaza. When looking at the fishing activity in Belize, particularly extraction, men dominate the sector. But the industry includes processing, transportation, sale and management. In Belize we have forty-seven licensed commercial fishers and there are a large number of women involved in the processing […]
