On Wednesday night, we reported that Belize Sugar Industries (B.S.I.) is temporarily halting sugar production for the 2024-2025 season. B.S.I. explained that heavy rains have led to poor quality and low quantities of sugar cane, and bad road conditions have made the situation worse. Today, we heard from the Minister of Agriculture, Jose Abelardo Mai, during his appearance on Open Your Eyes.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“The mill has closed because of insufficient cane reaching the mill. The fields are excessively wet. The quality of the cane is horrible. The mill will run out of excess bagasse. They burn baggase to produce energy. There is a cold front coming in that will bring some rainfall. If the mill closes because of this issue, or if sugar cane is not reaching the mill, the mill will be forced to closed down, because they are using up all the reserved baggase. They will be unable to restart the crop. That puts at risk the entire sugar crop for 2025. So, I read that thing on Facebook. It is wrong and political mischief. But I must say that we continue to fix sugar roads and because of the weather, the frequent rainfall pattern, it is destroyed. You fix it again, it is destroyed. So, the government is losing. The cane farmer because of the quality is losing. The TCS, the ton of cane to sugar is at sixteen tons. You are losing money.”
Production at the Belize Sugar Industries has been paused due to persistent rainfall, which has led to muddy yields from farmers. But that’s not the only problem. The mill has also been dealing with a fusarium infection affecting northern cane crops and poor road conditions. B.S.I. says a new system is needed to prioritize cane quality over quantity. B.S.I. Communications Director, William Neal, shared more details on the issue.
William Neal, Communications Director, B.S.I.
”We’ve had projects of that nature before, we’ve had pre harvesting cane testing pre harvest cane testing and so the farmers are aware of that. We’ll definitely have to get back to our quality system where farmers are paid for quality and that will improve the way they manage their cane and also the way they harvest their cane because we definitely need to do it on a quality basis. As I said, you can’t tell if cane is ripe just by looking at it. So we’ll have to have a system that we’ve already demonstrated actually works. There will be a need for that to be put in place to be more beneficial to the farmers themselves. But we have these projects coming up that we’re implementing, like I said, the one for building the adaptive capacity of sugarcane farmers in Northern Belize, which is funded by GCF. And being managed by the Five C’s. So, those are some important things, but definitely we need an overhaul and a transformation of the delivery system to make sure that we’re bringing the best scheme possible to the mill.”
Today, Belize Sugar Industries (B.S.I.) announced it is temporarily halting sugar production for the 2024-2025 season. This decision comes from key industry players who are trying to tackle the poor quality and low quantity of sugar cane arriving at the mill, largely due to excessive rainfall in Belize. B.S.I. also pointed out that the terrible condition of the sugar roads has made it even harder to get the cane to the mill. William Neal, B.S.I.’s Communication Director, shared more insights into the situation.
William Neal
William Neal, Communications Director, B.S.I.
“We’ve been having rains since October, and that has made it extremely difficult in terms of the field conditions for farmers. First of all, trying to harvest in these conditions. We’ve had reports, of course, from the feeder roads going to the fields. So the fields, the roads have been in very terrible condition and the fields have been in terrible conditions. This is not a good time to be harvesting because obviously the amount of mud and the difficulty that farmers have to extract their cane makes it extremely difficult. So you spend far more energy, in terms of physical energy and also gas, et cetera, to actually bring cane to the factory. Once they’re at the factory, we had to really deal with more than double the amount of mud that the factory can afford to process at this juncture. So it’s really not a good time to actually continue with the cane season, simply because the challenges at the farm level and at the factory level are just extraordinary. The cost in terms of what we’re spending to try and extract sugar from cane that has very poor quality at this juncture, simply because the rains have been so consistent makes it just not viable for us to continue with the cane crop at this juncture.”
Starting today, Belize Sugar Industries (BSI) is hitting the brakes on sugar production at the mill. This move comes as farmers and producers struggle with the muddy mess caused by heavy rains. The pause in production will continue until the weather improves, but there’s no clear end in sight. We spoke with BSI Communications Director William Neal to find out how this will affect the local sugar supply. Here’s what he had to say.
William Neal, Communications Director, B.S.I.
“Just based on what we’re looking at in terms of sugar production the domestic market is small. What we have concerns about is obviously, how we make, the sugars necessary for our contracts that we have. We, it’s still early in the crop. But what we have to do is make an assessment. We’ve talked about the cane price estimates, and we’ve looked at production shortfalls, but what we’re trying to do at this point is just decide what will be the best thing at this juncture to make sure that we’re not grinding just for grinding sake and that farmers are not trying to just pull out the cane to just say they delivered their cane if there’s no sugar in the cane, we’re wasting time, resources, money, and so are the farmers. So this is the best solution at this point we can’t project in the next six months, how much sugar we’ll have, what we’re hoping for is some improvement in the weather and we’ll continue to work on the mill side to try and extract as much sugar as we possibly can. More than sixty percent of the industry uses B79, which is a late maturing variety. So it might actually play to that in terms of the ripeness of cane and the optimum time to actually, have extraction. But if the weather continues to be like this, then it still won’t make much of a difference. If we have continuous rains, what we’re seeing as an industry is basically we cannot at this juncture continue to just hollow cane by any means necessary. It’s just not making any, since economically for anybody, because the amount of mud that comes, the quality of the cane is so poor that all around, it’s just a losing situation for everybody.”
We’ve been covering the tough road infrastructure challenges sugarcane farmers in the north are dealing with, but that’s not their only struggle. Prime Minister John Briceño pointed out that securing financing is a major hurdle for these farmers. He explained that they often must take out loans with interest rates as high as fourteen percent because it’s their only option. P.M. Briceño shared his plans to change this situation with reporters.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“One idea we have been playing with, and we have not fully worked it out, but there is a lot of liquidity in the system. One of the challenges our farmers have is the issue of financing. They get these one year financing loans from the bank and the interest rates are as much as fourteen percent. They are gouging them. So, every year they have to renew. When you run on the same spot or just going backwards, one idea we are looking at is providing the financing. The idea is to use this excess liquidity, pass it on to DFC, DFC could go to the farmer, I could go to DFC and say ok, I owe ten thousand dollars. We will pay of your ten thousand and another five thousand to rebuild, but then give you three, four years. At a lower interest rate, it gives them breathing space to rebuild their fields.”
The Briceño administration is pouring two million dollars into fixing the sugar roads up north. As we’ve reported, many of these roads are in terrible shape due to weeks of relentless rain. Repair work has already started, but the weather is still causing delays. Today, Prime Minister Briceño announced that, on top of the one million dollars already set aside for road repairs, the government has earmarked an additional one million dollars. Besides the awful road conditions, the quality of sugarcane has significantly deteriorated over the years, leading to a drop in sugar production. Here’s what the Prime Minister had to say about these issues.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Yes we have the support of the cane farmers. We have done very well for them. If you remember, the previous government gave them four hundred thousand dollars. What we have done, we have signed a contract in December but we cant control the rain. It has been raining since October virtually nonstop. And, the only way we could fix these road is if it gets dry and we know that. But of course, there is impatience and I understand the impatience. What we have done is put another million on top of what we have signed. So, it is going to be two million. We have never put that kind of money and they know that and they are working with us. But even the factory is not going well for them because the cane has too much water. The content is so high. The ton of cane for a ton of sugar is way too high. Usually, we have about nine tons of cane for one ton of sugar. We are about eighteen tons of cane to one ton of sugar. The amount of mud that comes in is wrecking up the equipment of BSI. So maybe we should have held back a bit more for the conditions to change.”
On Monday, we shared how the recent downpours have thrown a wrench in the works for delivering quality sugarcane to the Tower Hill Factory. The fields are waterlogged, and the roads are a muddy mess, making them nearly impossible to navigate. The relentless rain has also stalled road repairs, leaving cane farmers no choice but to harvest immature cane, which unfortunately yields very little. However, Alfredo Ortega, Chairman of the Committee of Management for the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, believes that with the right support, diversifying and planting different types of cane could help tackle the issues of flooding and disease.
Alfredo Ortega
Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A.
“Looking into variety, and that is something that we feel that SIRDI being the arm, needs to look upon varieties. I think that this is something that they really need to take into account on which we know that they have been working on it, but it needs much more to be done in regard to getting new varieties, but varieties that will really give us that return and yield that we need. The B79 is a predominant variety because that is a variety that shows that it can give good yields in both low and highlands. If we get a pest infestation on that variety, then we are really going to lose because as you hear right now, the Fusarium problem that we are facing, we are experiencing it now, that the farmers are delivering, we see the quality of cane, we are seeing the TCTS that is coming out is very low, compared to other years. This year is really challenging for us as farmers because the Fusarium not only attack one variety, but it’s attacking all canes on a whole. And we are seeing the problem that we are facing so farmers themselves have been trying to plant other varieties that are to harvest on the very early part of the season.”
Cane farmers are facing significant financial losses. When the mill must shut down due to a lack of cane to process, it hits the factory hard too. Mac McLachlan, the General Manager of the A.S.R/B.S.I. sugar mill, agrees that diversifying with different types of sugarcane could help solve some of the issues farmers are currently grappling with, like low yields and diseases. He points out that in other countries, cane farmers are already investing in various replanting strategies to tackle these challenges.
Mac McLachlan
Mac McLachlan, General Manager, A.S.R/B.S.I.
“Normally, a sugar industry would have a whole range of different varieties. Some of them would mature earlier, some of them would mature later, so that you end up having a higher amount of sugar across the whole range of the crop, but here it’s been because of the lack of serious replanting in cane fields. We’re predominantly one variety, and so that won’t actually reach full maturity for some time now. But you see if we all wait until the time is optimal to begin the crop, then as we’ve learned in recent years, later on in June, July, then we get into real problems and then that farmers are left without being able to deliver cane, which is even the worst situation.”
Repairs have started on the dirt roads in northern Belize that lead to the cane fields. Last week, the Corozal Sugarcane Producers Association raised concerns about the deteriorating roads, which have been made worse by constant rain, making it difficult for farmers to access their fields. This has led to a significant drop in the amount of sugarcane delivered to Tower Hill. To make matters worse, the poor quality of the harvested cane is producing less sugar, causing the mill to halt operations at times. This is problematic because the mill isn’t designed to stop during the cane season, and doing so can cause damage. News Five’s Marion Ali has more on this story.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Since last week, crews from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing have been hard at work fixing the badly damaged dirt roads in the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts that lead to the cane fields. The relentless rains over the past few weeks have made it tough for farmers to harvest their mature cane, and their heavy-duty equipment has only worsened the road conditions. Jose Majil, the chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association’s Corozal Branch, has been closely monitoring the situation.
Jose Majil
Jose Majil, Chairman, B.S.C.F.A, Corozal Branch
“Some farmers have big machinery, so they try to take out the product, but they are at the time, they’re hurting the roads too and the farmers that have small trucks, well they cannot pass.”
The farmers were forced to harvest the cane they can reach, but the crop is immature and that has also added to the problem, according to BSI’s General Manager, Mac McLoughlin.
Mac McLoughlin
Mac McLoughlin, General Manager, A.S.R./B.S.I
“We’re milling very, very poor-quality cane. So obviously that’s having an impact, and it will have an impact on the whole industry, because farmers are paid on the sugar that’s produced and for the mill. At this point, we’ve milled over seventy thousand tons of sugar cane. At this point last year, we’d only milled fifty-seven thousand tons because of the delays to the crop, because of one association, but this year, we’ve made three thousand three hundred tons of sugar. Last year, we made three thousand seven hundred tons, so we made more sugar with thirteen thousand tons less cane last year.”
With the rain finally letting up, crews from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing have been busy restoring the sugar roads in the north. Chief Engineer Evondale Moody reports that most of the work is now complete.
Evondale Moody
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, M.I.D.H
“In the Corozal District we have over two hundred and seventy miles of road and in the Orange Walk District we have about three hundred and fifteen miles of sugar roads. With the budget that we receive annually there’s no way that we could maintain all these roads continuously, especially when we have significant rainfall as what we’ve been having in this past year, 2024. However, we try our best to initiate the upgrading of these sugar roads, especially the main ones prior to the sugar cane season. So we started these roads in late November, early December once we had the funds available to commence these works.”
But the rain started again and interrupted the road works, until last week. Moody mentioned that during this period, the farmers’ heavy equipment further damaged the roadworks, making the situation even worse.
Evondale Moody
“Some of the cane fields are wet but you still have those trucks going into the cane fields and bringing out that contaminated material onto the road. Please bear in mind that these roads are not paved roads, they’re gravel roads and once that gravel gets contaminated it creates another problem for us because we still need to go back and do the same thing again to address that.”
The cane fields in the north are mostly lowlands, about eighty percent, with only twenty percent being highlands. Alfredo Ortega, Chairman of the Committee of Management for the B.S.C.F.A Orange Walk Branch, suggests that the mill should consider shortening the harvest period to avoid the rainy season.
Alfredo Ortega
Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A, Orange Walk Branch
“We have been trying to do what we can, but nevertheless, climate change is one of the issues that is affecting us now, left, right and center because the amount of rain that we are getting now is much more than any other given year. Starting one day, two days after Christmas, many of the cutters – because we rely on the manpower – many of them are still in the party mood and that is why we’re telling them that they delay so that whenever we start in January, then we have a better flow of cane being delivered to the mill.”
However, McCloughlin argues that climate change has blurred the lines between rainy and dry seasons. He emphasizes that making better investments is crucial for successful crops, just like in other sugar-producing countries.
Mac McLoughlin
“All four cane farmer associations and the mill agreed to start when we started, as that if we start earlier, albeit a little bit wet sometimes, it’s better than ending in the rain. You have upland fields, you have lower land fields, there needs to be effective drainage in fields. You know, you need to have better water management, you need to have investment, you’ve got to have investment in the cane farm. Really, we have to change the whole structure, I think, of the way the cane industry works here because we’re seeing, year by year, more of a deterioration in the cane crop, both the yields and the quality.”
There’s no estimate yet on the losses for this sugar crop due to the delays, but cane farmers are hopeful that they can make up for lost time if the weather stays dry. Marion Ali for News Five.
The Commission of Inquiry’s report on Belize’s sugar industry, completed at the end of November 2024, is still under wraps. The commission handed the report to the prime minister, who will decide when to share it with the public. Mac McLoughlin, General Manager of A.S.R/B.S.I, hinted that a sneak peek at the documents shows many of the sugar factory’s recommendations were included. Meanwhile, Alfredo Ortega from the B.S.C.F.A. mentioned that they are eagerly waiting to see what the report contains.
Mac McLoughlin
Mac McLoughlin, General Manager, A.S.R/B.S.I
“What we’ve seen so far, I mean, it really just tells us what we were expecting, which is that we really need to concentrate on modernizing and improving the productivity and quality in the cane farm, you know. I think the commission will be recommending a number of things, including quality testing and improved quality testing of cane in the future. Increasing, amounts of replanting of cane because these things are not rocket science. This is what any modern industry has to do, and I assume it will be talking about finding funding for, for farmers to be able to achieve that because that’s what’s required, that we need investment in the cane farm. The factory has had a lot of investment in it and I think if we can get to the right quality levels, we can prove what our industry here can achieve.”
Alfredo Ortega
Alfredo Ortega, Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A, Orange Walk Branch
“The Prime Minister said that report will give an opportunity to better off the Sugar Industry Act. So we are waiting on that so that we can also have our start the negotiation with BSI in regards to our agreement based on what the Commission brings out.”
