3 weeks ago
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Come tomorrow, sugarcane farmers will be collecting a portion of their payments for the last crop season. The payments are not as robust as they have seen in the past decade due to multiple factors. The news is nothing new, as back in June, the Finance Director of BSI/ASR indicated that everyone in the sugar industry would take a massive hit this season. Reflecting on the season was the President of the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association (CSCPA), Vladimir Puck. According to Puck, the season was brutal, not only in the mud derivatives from the cane harvesting but also the challenges posed in holding on to cane cutters throughout the season.
Vladimir Puck, CSCPA President “As I have been a caner farmers I have never seen such drastic losses due to climate change and also some very tough situations we had with cane cutters this year. I mean harvest delivery has always been a little bit complicated but due to these factors I think that it really discoordinated all the operations in the industry. Well first of all the crop due to the losses that we had in production affected us, that is one. As I mentioned also cane cutters was the other situation that we had so those are two major things that contributed to a loss in revenue and also the way we are paid by quality and quality is what also went down this year compared to other years and that is due to climate change which the Fusarium infestation as you are aware during this year and last year when it began affected more the Corozal area, now it’s spreading up to the Orange Walk district. So those factors due to climate change, fusarium and other infestations that we have seen contributed a lot to the loss in production and loss in quality so that means that at the end of the day we are going to have a payment which is not so favorable for all cane farmers but still even the ones that received a few more dollars than us are still somewhat low compared to other years.”
As for the assistance received from the government in the sugar industry, Puck noted that during the crop season they do have some benefits. He highlighted that during the season the government subsidizes them with fuel and vehicle licensing as well as access to funding via the Development Finance Corporation, the CRESAP Program and the 5Cs Program. He says with despite this assistance, the fusarium infestation is costing far more to the cane farmers.
English (US) ·