ORANGE WALK, Wed. Apr. 28, 2021– The American Sugar Refining Group (ASR) and the Belize Sugar Industry (BSI) are objecting to the Government of Belize’s claim that they are incapable of milling all of the sugarcane produced by local caneros without waste — a claim which is the basis of GOB’s move to facilitate the sale of cane by Northern farmers to the Santander Group. ASR/BSI issued a release condemning this action and insisted that they are very capable of milling all the sugar cane produced in Northern Belize.

This release was issued following a Cabinet brief that notified the public that the Santander Group is authorized to purchase 50,000 tons of sugarcane from farmers in Northern Belize. The Cabinet has said that this contract will allow local farmers to earn income by selling cane that would otherwise not have been milled by BSI, and would thus have been wasted.
The ASR/BSI release noted that there are many shortcomings in the offer of such a contract and suggested that better decisions could have been made if the two major sugarcane stakeholders had been consulted prior to the decision.

ASR/BSI claims the government was fundamentally wrong on three counts. Firstly, the government’s decision was made based on a cane price estimate with a base assumption of 1,060,000 tons of sugarcane milled. The joint release states, “This figure is purely an assumption for the purposes of estimating a cane price and not an indication that this is the maximum amount of cane BSI will mill. This is established practice for previous crop estimates.” Government could not have had a sufficiently solid basis to make any decision through the use of figures that were based only on assumptions, ASR/BSI argued.

The second argument by ASR/BSI is that their milling season does not end at the end of June — which is another claim that was made by GOB when it outlined the reasons for allowing Santander to purchase cane from Northern caneros. While acknowledging that there was a two-week delay in crop production and the suspension of milling in January due to the state of the road, the letter from ASR/BSI states, “BSI has the intention of milling all the cane anticipated under the commercial agreements for this season, as we have in previous years. We have a strong track record of achieving this. BSI fully anticipates the milling season going into July as it has in recent years.” ASR/BSI further said that while it is impossible for any sugar company to predict weather constraints, they have had a proven track record of achieving their contractual goals.

Lastly, argued the ASR/BSI, the Government of Belize assessed the amount of cane produced in the North using projected estimates, which have exceeded actual production for the past five years. According to statistics from the BSI and ASR, the estimates exceed the actual sugar cane delivered by a large margin. The sugar companies believe that this year will be no different. While the sugar cane farmers have rebounded from the devastating drought last year, ASR and BSI believe that it is optimistic to believe that production will return to pre-drought levels.

While ASR/BSI remains adamant that they have the milling power to process all sugarcane in the northern districts of Orange Walk and Corozal, Marcos Osorio, chairman of the Sugar Industry Control Board, has come out in support of the government’s decision. Osorio, in an interview with News5, said that this decision is in the best interest of the farmers and the industry. The contract given to the Santander Group will generate additional income for farmers and will limit the crops wasted, he said.