With our prized forest having been depleted by the mid-20th century, our economy was steered to The Green Revolution for its salvation. The PUP, under the leadership of George Price, pushed for small farmer involvement in the production of grains, pulses, and vegetables, for local consumption; and citrus (orange and grapefruit), banana, and sugarcane for export. From the 1960s onwards, small farmers had a big voice in the running of our country, and the voices of those in the citrus and sugarcane industries were the loudest.
Today, small farmer involvement in vegetable production remains strong, but grain and pulse production has been taken over by large farmers with large machines. Diseases have been a major factor in the disappearance of small farmers from the citrus and banana industries; and now a disease, Fusarium, threatens the livelihoods of thousands of small farmers in their last bastion, the sugarcane industry in the north.
Small farmer involvement in the banana industry is now non-existent. The banana industry was revived in south Stann Creek in the 1970s, with small farmers controlling a number of parcels in the industry. But in the 1980s the small holdings were gobbled up by the large farmers. Key in the decision to “privatize” the banana industry was the cost of controlling Sigatoka, a fungal disease that can only be contained by spraying thrice monthly with expensive fungicides. Similarly, small farmers are mostly gone from the citrus industry. Citrus production peaked a couple decades ago, and then Huanglongbing (citrus greening) hit the industry, and small farmers had to turn to other endeavors for their survival.
Throughout all of that, the sugarcane industry in the north, though buffeted at times, remained robust. Sugar has seen very good times. In the early 1970s it was worth its weight in gold. Sugar has also seen some very bad times. The price of sugar dipped in the latter part of the 1970s, and hit bottom in the 1980s, because of the introduction of HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup). Around the same time HFCS became popular, sugar production in Belize became more costly because of pest pressure, from smut (a disease) and a froghopper (insect) infestation in the fields.
The slump in the sugar industry had massive implications for the political and business landscape. In 1984 the PUP, which had never lost a general election, was wiped out at the polls. The distressed industry couldn’t support two sugar mills, and the factory at Libertad, Corozal, was closed. With the support of the new government, the employees at the sugar mill in Tower Hill, Orange Walk, acquired majority shares in Belize Sugar Industries Ltd. (BSI), from Tate & Lyle. The shares reportedly had been offered to the farmers, but they had fallen on hard times and so were unable to buy them.
Around 2010, when BSI ran into financial trouble after the company overextended in its investment in the electricity-generating plant, Belcogen, the farmers sought the help of government (at the time UDP) to take over the company. But the government sought to sell majority shares in BSI to Banco Atlántida from Honduras. Impossibly, Banco Atlántida wanted to produce 50% of the cane milled at the factory, and the sale collapsed. In 2012 the giant ASR Group from the US got the nod from government to purchase 81% of BSI.
This sale to a foreign company remains a sore spot with the country’s largest cane farmer group, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA). While in Opposition, the present government (PUP) had supported farmer ownership of majority shares in BSI, but after it took the reins of government in 2020 the PUP took a more conciliatory position toward the majority owner. The BSCFA maintains an interest in wresting ownership of the mill from ASR-BSI, and almost yearly there is a delay in the start of the zafra because of wrangling between the two, over dividends from Belcogen, payment from the Fairtrade program, and the refusal of ASR-BSI to open their books.
Last year, after considerable effort, the government got ASR-BSI to be part of a “Commission of Inquiry” that had the mandate to “examine the sugar cane industry’s whole value chain”, and with high hopes, the farmers returned to the fields, confident in the future of the industry. They had extra reason to be confident, since the price of sugar on the world market last year was one of the highest ever. Then, in just a few months, the industry went from booming to reeling.
The farmers reportedly will be receiving $54 per ton for their sugarcane, a huge drop from the $87 per ton they received for their last crop. But the price of sugar is cyclical; what is of far greater concern is the disease that is devastating the crop. If Fusarium isn’t contained quickly, and without enormous expenditure, it could be the end of small farmer participation in sugarcane production in Belize.
The agronomical problem is enormous, dwarfs the divide between the BSCFA and ASR-BSI. PM Briceño told AMANDALA, “I think that BSCFA, the leaders are realizing that we could be continuing this fighting back and forth and they might be fighting over nothing.”
Hon. Jose Mai, the present Minister of Agriculture, who is himself a sugarcane farmer, told AMANDALA that “60% to 70% of fields are yellowing”, that the disease is impacting all cane fields in the north. He said the 2024/25 crop has “a shortfall of 23,000 tons of sugar and a shortfall of $53 million in proceeds from sugar and molasses”; and that, “for the next season, he estimates that the decline in production may be as much as 200,000 [tons].” Mai said, “5,000 cane farmers, 20,000 people will be impacted; and when employees and mill workers are added, that figure increases to 35,000.”
The UDP’s Guardian says Mai was sleeping at his desk when the disease was first observed in October 2023, and that if he had acted promptly, the industry wouldn’t be in the “monumental crisis” it is in presently. The Guardian said Mai announced that he had “secured funding to assist farmers for them to be able to spray fungicide in their fields,” and that, had that measure been implemented earlier, “the detrimental effects of the fungus would not have been as profound.” The Guardian also noted that the industry is looking at “using biological agents to combat the disease”, and “looking at planting resistant varieties of cane.”
It is a question how viable the use of fungicide is on sugarcane, which is not a high-value crop. Minister Mai said they are/were hesitant to use fungicides because, among other things, they could harm the environment. Mai said they are getting positive results in “one trial with biological controls.” Also, he said they are planning to explore the planting of “resistant and tolerant sugar cane varieties.” A number of sugarcane varieties show resistance to/tolerance of Fusarium, but it will take some time to do the research to find varieties that both grow well in Belize, and possess the resistance to/tolerance of the strain(s) of the fungus that is/are decimating our sugarcane.
Small farmers have lost their foothold in citrus, and now the hold of small farmers is slipping in sugarcane. If plantations continue to deteriorate because of Fusarium, the cost of producing sugarcane will increase to the point where only the large farmers will be able to defend their crops.
We are perilously close to the end of an era. We are living in a Belize that is turning out to be very different from the one envisaged by our first leaders. Gone is citrus from our small farmers, and now sugarcane appears to be going from our small farmers too. Welcome BPOs and tour guiding for our people.