Belize Sugar Industry Set for Major Expansion

Big changes are coming to Belize’s sugar industry. Recently, Santander Sugar Limited has partnered up with the U.S. and Canadian sugar refinery and distributor, Sucro Limited, to create the Caribbean Sugar Refinery Limited (CSR). This joint venture aims to transform the Caribbean sugar industry by building capacity and expanding inti the CARICOM market. The approval of the plant, which will be constructed in Valley of Peace, Cayo, follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Belize. We heard from Prime Minister John Briceño about the plan today.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

 ”I think this is an exciting step because basically with your partners, they are going to put a refinery here at the Santander plant. And why is it important? It’s important simply because then all of our sugar, or most of our sugar then can be refined. So we add value and then we sell it into Caricom where we get a better price and how do our farmers benefit? They will not be benefit directly from the sale  from the refined sugar, but we don’t have to pay shipping to move the raw sugar to other markets. It’s just going to be shipped right here within from say, Orange Walk to the Cayo District. So because of those charges of less charges of transportation and so forth. I think they’re telling me and  Santander that our farmers can be able to expect maybe as much as three dollars more per ton.”

 

Reporter

“What is the government offering by way of incentives?”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“The usual what we do the development concessions include the tax breaks from importation of the necessary equipment and so forth. One critical part to it is that we have to have a discussion with BEL. Because Santander has signed an agreement to be able to provide electricity, and if they do not meet the amount of electricity to that they have to provide, they can be penalized with this project, this new project, they are going to use a portion, a small portion, not the full, but some of the of the energy that’s being sold to the grid to be able to power this this refinery. And so that said, then we have to talk to, to be able to see if they can remove that clause to penalize them because this project is very important for us as a country.”