1 week ago
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Sugar cane farmers are preparing to receive their second payment for the 2026 crop, but the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association says the amount falls well short of what growers need to meet their expenses and sustain their livelihoods. Belize Sugar Industries Limited has informed the four cane farmers associations that the second payment will be made on Wednesday, July 22. BSI has estimated the average cane price at 59 dollars and 94 cents per ton. Under the existing payment arrangement, 91 percent of that estimated price is due by the second payment. Farmers had already received a first payment of 42 dollars and 43 cents per ton when their cane was delivered. BSCFA Vice Chairman Alfredo Ortega says the second payment comes at a difficult time for farmers, many of whom are facing rising production costs and other financial obligations. He says that while the payment will provide some relief, the returns from this year’s crop are not enough for many farmers to survive and adequately prepare their fields for another season.
Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA: “Farmers, well, the farmers were expecting a bit more than what is, is being given today or yesterday evening. This information was sent to us. There are many farmers that were believing that the estimate would have increased since we have almost five weeks since the crop has come to an end. Nevertheless, well as you know, speculations were out there and they may have various from farmers. Some of them were talking about such a price over $20, but now we have received the reality on which the highest is $14, a little bit above $14 and the one in the lowest is $9, a little bit less than $10, depending on the group, on the test group where you end out and the quality on which you end out. So in reality when we see what we’ll be getting now as a second payment versus to what it costs the farmers to get that came to the mill. Since the price of diesel went up above $16 the reality of it is that we are not making money in regards to our sugar cane production. Farmers have the sugar industry at heart and there are many farmers that are doing on their own some replanting and what’s not, but the crude reality is that this situation is pushing a lot of farmers out of the system. There are many issues on which is taking this situation, the climate change and also looking further into the pests that we are experiencing now as we speak. And the price that we are getting is one of the, one of the running problems that farmers are facing, as I mentioned before, the reality is now in our hands, we have seen now the payment that will be given to farmers this coming Wednesday which is very low and many of that will be staying on the bank because almost 99.5% of us farmers owe to a financial institution. So farmers will only be looking to their receipt. Maybe some of them will end up paying what they owe and some of them will have to work with the bank to see the balance on which they will be staying because, well as you know, farmers make their commitments with the banks believing that there will be a good return on the second payment. because we speak now with this return that is a reality now then many farmers will be staying owing their commercial institution.”
With another crop season ahead, Ortega says attention must now turn to measures that can improve the industry’s performance and put farmers in a stronger financial position. He says government, the miller and cane farming organizations all have a role to play in addressing the challenges affecting productivity and ensuring farmers have the support needed to invest in their fields.
Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, BSCFA: “As we speak right now you know that there is an amount of material that is settled right now at SIRDI on which well it’s a loan that the government has and which it is trying to get the farmers as a grant. Nevertheless, there is a service that is being needed to apply that material to the cane field and that is what we have been working very close, well the leadership have been working with the government on which up to now we have not reached to a positive response to assist the farmers so that they can continue the problem or the problem that we are facing right now so that we can have production for the upcoming crop. So we are acting very diligently right now with the SIRDI and the minister in charge of the sugar industry to see how best they can assist farmers to get the service to spray their cane fields so that they can tame what is damaging at this point.”
The final production figures for the 2026 crop are expected to be provided to the cane farmers associations once BSI completes the ongoing re-melting of raw sugar for the production of plantation white sugar for the domestic market. According to BSI, its cane price estimate is based on a crop of 815 thousand 285 tons of cane milled, with projected production of 74 thousand 992 tons of sugar and 29 thousand 764 tons of final molasses. The estimate also takes into account projected sales to markets in the European Union, the United States, the Caribbean and Belize. BSI notes, however, that freight costs remain a significant unknown and that no provision has yet been made for sugar losses.
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