Sugar Cane Industry Suffers Labor Shortage

On Monday, the ASR Group and Belize Sugar Industries Limited made a groundbreaking announcement, revealing a record-breaking estimated price for sugar cane. As of September thirtieth, the average cane price for the 2024 crop is projected to be an unprecedented eighty-seven dollars and ninety-nine cents per ton, the highest in the industry’s history. This remarkable price surge comes on the heels of a challenging crop season, with B.S.I. facing significant labor shortages. In response, the company has been advancing towards automating parts of its assembly line. We reached out to B.S.I. for more insights into this development.

 

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, ASR/BSI

“The cane price estimate we issued at the end of September was close to eighty-eight, eighty-seven point nine. That’s a new record price we’ve never had a price that high. A final price will be issued at the end of October, which will be for the final payment, which is due the first Monday of November. We know that farmers are very pleased with this price. We think it’s a demonstration of the investments that we’ve made in terms of expanding value added sugar, the port investments to lower shipping costs, and also the war market prices that have been increasing. So we’ve been hearing positive feedback on that and we’re. We’re hoping to see perhaps even as maybe smaller adjustment when the final price comes in at the end of October.”

 

Eldy Smith, Supply Chain Manager, ASR/BSI

“This crop, we did have severe labor shortages with our operations in these warehouses and boat warehouses. It is an intensive labor process that we do, right? So what we did is we strategized to be able to mitigate the labor shortages. And what we did is we were able to palletize this product. So our customers in the CARICOM are also dealing with this issue. And they are asking, they have already asked us to move into palletize slowly. I think the world will be moving into more optimized, automated processes. Because I think there are competitive markets out there. I think in Belize we have very competitive markets now, especially with the call centers, and so we need to ensure that we are prepared. And also because we’re as a company, we have a customer approach.”