Earlier in the news, we showed you how the leadership of ASR/BSI justified why bulk exports of raw sugar were being shifted from the Port of Belize to the Big Creek Port. That conversation came up during a virtual press conference in which the millers announced that the 2020/2021 sugar crop season has come to a close.
Today, ASR's Mac McLachlan told us that after a challenging season, the sugar cane farmers managed to deliver 1.22 million tonnes of sugar cane for grinding:
Malcolm McLachlan - V.P. International Relations, BSI/ASR
"Yesterday, we concluded the cane delivery for this crop season. It looks like we will end up with just shy of 1.22 million tonnes of sugar cane. And, we're now in the process of liquidating and making the last of the sugar, liquidating the factory and getting ready to basically rip it apart and rebuild it, and put in a considerable amount of investment to ensure that we're ready to start again for the next season. So, although we have a few seconds to take a breath at the end, we don't have very long because this really is a 24/7 business. I want to thank very much the cane farmers for bringing in all that cane. It was more or less what we expected, perhaps a little bit more than what we were expecting, remembering that last year was a very poor crop, affected by the previous year's drought. So, the cane bounced back quite well. It's been a difficult crop mainly because of the weather. We had a lot of interruptions at the beginning of the crop, which really meant that we lost 15 days early on in the crop. And that always means that it puts a little more pressure on toward the end of the crop. That tends to bring us into kind of the more rainy season, which can be difficult for both farmers and for the mill. But, a big shout of thanks to the farmers for bringing in all that cane, and the consistency of bringing it in. And a huge shout-out to our mill employees also, who have managed this crop, even though we've had some pretty adverse weather throughout parts of it, which have been difficult. So, we don't have the exact amount of sugar that we will be producing yet because we're still liquidating the factory. But, roughly half of it is direct consumption sugar that will be bagged, sold, and shipped out in containers. And the other half is raw sugar that will go out as bulk sugar for refining in the UK and EU."
But, the millers say that the quality of cane delivered for this crop season wasn't as good as previous years, and so, more cane will be needed to make 1 tonne of sugar. Here's that part of the interview:
Malcolm McLachlan
"That excellent TC: TS you're referred to was the very dry year that we had when there was very high quality in the cane, as a result largely of the weather. Obviously, it's also to do with efforts and inputs that farmers are making, both replanting and husbandry to ensure the cane quality is good. But, of course, the downside to that brilliant year was that because of the very dry period, we suffered a drought, and we paid the consequences for that last year, with such a dramatic fall-off in cane supply. So, this year, we got the cane back, largely, but the quality was affected by weather."
