Sugar Industry Suffers $53M Blow Amid Fusarium Crisis

Belize’s sugar industry is facing a bitter blow this season, as the impact of Fusarium disease proves far worse than expected. Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai says the numbers tell a troubling story, sugarcane production is down by over one hundred and forty thousand tons compared to last year, and the country may not even hit the nine-hundred-thousand-ton mark. To make matters worse, the price per ton has plummeted, dropping from eighty-seven dollars last year to just fifty-four dollars this season. That’s a twenty-five percent decrease, translating to a staggering fifty-three-million-dollar shortfall in revenue. With rains threatening to cut the crop season even shorter, the industry is bracing for a tough road ahead.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“It is worse than we expected. We monitor the reports of the production being delivered to the mill weekly and we look at what is in the field. Just for you to have an idea, in 2024, the production estimate was 1.19 million tons of sugarcane. Our estimate this year is 1.045 million tons. That’s a hundred and forty-five thousand tons less than what was estimated. But as deliveries continue, as deliveries continue, the cane delivered in 2024, last year, was 1.043 million tons. Round it off to a million tons delivered last year. So, this year, we said that we could estimate, based on the assessment of the field, nine hundred thousand tons. So that’s a hundred and forty-three thousand tons less than last year. As of six o’clock this morning, the amount of sugarcane milled was eight hundred and fifty-nine thousand, six hundred and twenty-five tons. So, we haven’t even reached the nine hundred-thousand-ton mark, and I don’t think that it may be easy to reach the nine hundred-thousand-ton mark. So, up to this morning, we’re at eight hundred and fifty-nine thousand. If the rains continue for another two days, I don’t think the crop will be able to continue. The estimate price per ton of cane was ninety dollars and twenty-three cents. So, we already see that that’s a drop of twenty-five dollars there for the price being paid. From eighty-seven dollars last year to fifty-four dollars this year, based on the last estimate. That’s a twenty-five percent drop in price per ton. So, in total revenue, last year one hundred and sixty-three million, five hundred and fifty-one thousand dollars was generated. Today, at nine hundred thousand tons which we will not reach, the total revenue is estimated at a hundred and ten million dollars. That’s a shortfall of fifty-three million dollars.”