1 week ago
7
The 2026 sugar crop season is set to officially come to an end on Sunday evening following a unanimous decision by industry stakeholders during a joint review meeting held on June 16. The Sugar Cane Production Committee, Belize Sugar Industries Limited, and the country’s four cane farmers associations agreed that the crop should conclude at 6:00 p.m. on June 21 after assessing remaining cane availability, current factory delivery rates, and weather conditions forecast for the coming days. Vice Chairman of the Committee of Management of the BSCFA, Alfredo Ortega, says the decision was reached collectively after all parties reviewed the realities facing the industry at this stage of the harvest.
Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA: “Many meetings that are being held as you know we have the SCPC where all the associations including BSI and there are members of the board that are part of that group, the SCPC. So we have many meetings where we were addressing what was the amount of production that was there still available in the fields and based on those meetings that were carried out all leaders had the opportunity to report what they have in their association and what is how we reached to that unanimous agreement yesterday where everybody reported what they believe that they have and how much days they think that they would need to deliver that balance that they have and that is where we reached to this point to agree that Sunday will be the closing date. Apart from that it was reported that bad weather is coming in for Sunday evening coming into Monday well you know those reports sometimes are true and sometimes it doesn’t happen but based on the amount of cane and that well we agreed as a group to finalize on Sunday.”
Farmers have been advised to complete harvesting activities immediately to ensure that all cut cane reaches the factory before Sunday’s deadline, while the SCPC continues coordinating final delivery schedules to facilitate an orderly end to the season. Despite the challenges experienced this year, Ortega says farmers are hopeful that recovery efforts underway in the fields will position the industry for improvement during the next crop cycle, even though a date for the opening of the next season has not yet been determined.
Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA: “We have not reached to that point right now to come into an agreement of when we plan to start because as you see we have not finished this crop. So we don’t know what amount of cane will be staying in the field right now. We know that there are some farmers that are preparing to do new plantings. There are some plantings that are staying there but many of it it will be used for seeds for this planting season that is coming. So I don’t know as we speak right now what would be the forecast for next crop as we speak right now, but maybe a month after this crop ends we can have better information to inform you.”
In tomorrow’s newscast we’ll tell you of the growing trend of small cane farmers moving away from sugar production and into other agricultural ventures.
English (US) ·