Sugar Farmers Struggle as Bad Roads Delay Crop

Just eleven days into the 2025 sugar crop, cane farmers in northern Belize say poor road conditions are preventing them from delivering their harvest to the factory.

Government officials blame weeks of heavy rain for delaying repairs, but farmers argue that with clear skies now, work has not reached their areas. The result, they say, is lost time and money.

Chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association, Salvador Martin, told News Five that his village alone is short by more than a thousand tonnes of cane. “We have been disappointed because it almost ten days, that crop starts, eleven days… and we done short of more than one thousand tons,” he said.

Martin added that farmers cannot survive on promises. “I no have no doubt that the government have a good intention, but I can’t live on good intention. We have to be real,” he explained, noting that while other branches have begun deliveries, his members remain stalled.

The association says farmers are losing thousands of dollars each day as trucks struggle to move cane on impassable roads. Martin described feeling “ashamed and disrespected” after assuring villagers that repairs would be completed.