BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan. 27, 2022– The Belize Sugar Industry (BSI) has issued a public statement to indicate that they are “extremely concerned” about an excessive quantity of extraneous material being found in the sugarcane that is being delivered to the mill. According to Communication Officer at BSI, William Neal, larger-than-usual rocks, sticks, and metals are being found during the initial phases of milling.
“It has been one month since the crop has started, and what is concerning to us at BSI is that we have seen extraneous materials, which means anything from metals to sticks, to rocks showing up more frequently in the cane that is being delivered to the mill. Because of the process for how the mill works, as the cane is being prepared, it has to go through the hammers, knives, etc., which as the name suggests for the knives, seeks to cut it in smaller portions so that it can go through the mill easier. So, obviously, when you have metal coming in, it cannot cut at the knives. Then, the hammers, which flattens the cane into something similar to what bagasse looks like as a part of the preparation for it to go through the mill itself. You have the problem that it cannot crush that at the level that it needs to be done for the preparation, and it damages the mill itself.” Neal explained.
These materials can cause significant damage to the hammers and knives used to prepare the cane at the start of the process, and if they somehow slip past that point, could cause “catastrophic” damage to the mill and harm to the sugar crop as a whole.
“Because of the frequency and the sizes, we are seeing, in terms of metals and rocks, that BSI has felt it necessary to write the cane farmer community, but at the same time also do something publicly to register that we are extremely concerned about the extraneous matter that we see coming to the mill and the damage it could do to the mill itself,” Neal stated in an interview.
This letter to the sugar cane farmers urges them to pay keener attention in the loading process to ensure that the potentially damaging material is not included in their loads of sugar cane delivered. One loading method that BSI is lobbying to ban is the use of push-pilers to load sugar cane in trucks after the cane is cut in the field. Neal explained that the use of this method results in potentially damaging material being indiscriminately picked up along with the cane.
“There has been talk of a ban for quite some years to push pilers. When the cane cutters have finished cutting the cane, the push pilers come behind, and as the name suggests, it actually pushes and piles so that it can be loaded in the truck. Sometimes you will have rocks, etc. being picked up, but that is one of the reaping practices that actually we have been pushing to eradicate and ban completely, because when you have a weather situation, that means it increases the mud that is also being collected. It also increases the chances of rocks or metals being piled in with the cane in the first place,” he said.
Currently, however, the amount of mud in the cane that is being delivered does not exceed what has typically been seen.
The sugar crop was delayed this year amid a stand-off between the Belize Sugarcane Farmers Association (BSCFA) and BSI over the terms of a new commercial agreement governing the revenue-and-cost-sharing arrangement between the mill and sugar cane farmers. After days of heated protest, the government brokered the signing of an interim agreement to allow for the sugar crop, which had been scheduled to start on December 20, to commence in the first week of January. Readers would recall that BSI found a sizable rock in the sugarcane shortly after the opening of the mill. These actions, however, are not currently being classified as sabotage by BSI/ASR.
“We’re not saying that they are acts of sabotage, and we are hopeful that they are not, but we are just saying that they are extremely worrisome, especially this early in the crop, because of what it could do to the overall crop itself,” Neal explained.
He added that BSI was asking the Sugar Cane Production Committee to reinforce the proposal to ban push pilers and rein in those sugar cane farmers who are known, repeat offenders.
“In the interim, what we are asking also because the cane is delivered by group, we can detect which group the extraneous materials are tied to and so we are also asking the SCPC at this point to look at those frequent offenders and either figure out a way to enforce some kind of greater due diligence on their part to make sure that that is not the situation that we face at the mill because it can be catastrophic for everyone within the industry,” Neal said.