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This morning, the new sugar season - known in the north as “La Zafraâ€￾ -  opened with its usual pomp and ceremony at the BSI’s Tower Hill Factory in the Orange Walk. You probably know that last year’s season was particularly rough for the cane farmers due to the very low world market prices for sugar that persisted for all of last season.

But the farmers and the millers are deeply invested into the future of the industry, and all involved must hope for a better financial outlook in the near future. 

Our news team travelled north for the opening of the season, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:

These VIP’s of the sugar industry threw the first sugar cane stalks on one of the dumping tables at BSI’s Tower Hill Factory. 

This was for a ceremonial purpose, and it marked the beginning of the 2018-2019 cane season. The millers are expecting grind as much cane as they did during last year’s crop.

Mac MacLachlan - VP, Int’l Relations, ASR Group
"We’re anticipating probably a similar amount of cane to last year, which was about 1.26 -  1.27 million tonnes. This factory is now capable of milling 135 million tonnes in crop period. It’s wonderful to see the trucks come in - beautiful to have a nice sunny day to start, and we’re ready to roll."

Getting ready to roll today meant that the millers had to do some significant servicing of the milling equipment of the factory.

Mac MacLachlan 
"From the perspective of the mill, we have worked diligently over the last 6 months. We’ve stripped this place down. We have serviced the generators, service the boilers here, and we’ve done everything in our power to get ready for this auspicious day."

But, the industry stakeholders, especially, the smaller cane farmers, have definitely had to weather financial blow that came with the evening of the playing field. That happened last year when the European Union normalized the market, and did away with Belize’s preferential access, at a premium price. The hope is that the all within industry are strong enough to continue surviving these trying times. 

Mac MacLachlan
"We understand it’s trying conditions right now because of the very low sugar prices that exist in the world."

Jose Alpuche - CEO, Ministry of Agriculture
"Do we have all the problems solved? Of course not, but we have the environment, a business-like environment, in which they can be resolved."

For Belize, the option for resolving these cripplingly low sugar prices in the European Union continues to be getting market access to the Caribbean.

Mac MacLachlan
"We’re looking at opening up a lot more opportunity in the CARICOM market for Caribbean sugar. It’s a travesty that at this time, 200,000 tonnes of sugar is imported from outside the region into the CARICOM region. And, it’s displacing the opportunity for our sugar, and for other CARICOM nations that produces sugar. So, we’re working with the Government, with the sugar associations of the Caribbean. We’re looking at how we can ensure that that sugar market is protected for Caribbean producers."

And ASR hopes that their continued multi-million dollar investments to improve the mill  demonstrates their commitment to seeing the country’s sugar industry survive, and hopefully thrive in a few years to come.

Mac MacLachlan 
"The big investments we’ve made in this mill. We have completed our phase 1 investment of 22 million Belize dollars to be able to produce a far higher quantity, over 50 thousand tonnes of direct consumption, higher value sugar. I think it’s no exaggeration to say that the Sugar Industry is the lifeblood of the north." 

As you saw last night, the Prime Minister explained the difficulties that the Government and the industry partners are having while they try to get Belize’s direct consumption sugars into the CARICOM market. The local authorities are asserting that they will keep up the effort.