Agriculture Minister Discusses Halted Sugar Crop

On Wednesday night, we reported that Belize Sugar Industries (B.S.I.) is temporarily halting sugar production for the 2024-2025 season. B.S.I. explained that heavy rains have led to poor quality and low quantities of sugar cane, and bad road conditions have made the situation worse. Today, we heard from the Minister of Agriculture, Jose Abelardo Mai, during his appearance on Open Your Eyes.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“The mill has closed because of insufficient cane reaching the mill. The fields are excessively wet. The quality of the cane is horrible. The mill will run out of excess bagasse. They burn baggase to produce energy. There is a cold front coming in that will bring some rainfall. If the mill closes because of this issue, or if sugar cane is not reaching the mill, the mill will be forced to closed down, because they are using up all the reserved baggase. They will be unable to restart the crop. That puts at risk the entire sugar crop for 2025. So, I read that thing on Facebook. It is wrong and political mischief. But I must say that we continue to fix sugar roads and because of the weather, the frequent rainfall pattern, it is destroyed. You fix it again, it is destroyed. So, the government is losing. The cane farmer because of the quality is losing. The TCS, the ton of cane to sugar is at sixteen tons. You are losing money.”