PM on Sugar Industry Challenges: “We Have to Start to Move Towards Mechanisation”

Belize’s sugar industry is facing high labour costs and slow government approvals, and Prime Minister John Briceño says mechanisation is the way forward.

Marcos Osorio, Chairman of the Sugar Industry Control Board, told News Five that farmers face steep costs when hiring foreign cane cutters. “It was costing them almost $600 per cane cutter, and that’s only the cost of the stamp at the border. And then by the time the permit is approved, it’s another $300… In the past, it was $50 per stamp per month,” he explained.

Today, Briceño responded that fees have not gone up but admitted that approvals take too long. “We have not raised any charges. I think more than anything else, the availability of manual labour, and secondly, sometimes the ministries, they take too long in the approval,” he said. “We have to be able to respond quicker in the approval of these applications.”

The Prime Minister pointed to recommendations for the industry, stating, “One of them is that we have to start to move towards mechanisation.” He explained that mechanisation would mean longer fields and proper gradients so that rainwater runs off more easily.

The Prime Minister also said the government plans to provide financing for farmers to replant with new, disease-resistant sugarcane varieties. “It’s a part of the whole modernisation of the industry to make it more effective and more efficient, and hopefully more profitable for the farmers, for BSI, and for the country,” he said.