There is some rare good news out of the sugar industry tonight. For the second year in a row, there is a record high second payment for sugar. The second payment works out to $75.20, five dollars above last year's record.
This comes after a rocky season that once again started late -and was cursed by above average rainfall and lots of mud on the cane.
ASR/BSI CFO Shawn Chavarria told us what accounted for the high payment, despite those adversities:
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, ASR/BSI
"This second price estimate of 75.20, as we highlighted in the press release, is a new record. The previous record was last year at 70.22. And the previous one to that was in 2015. I think all of this demonstrates the benefits of some of those investments that we've made to improve the value of the sugar that we were producing and also to lower the logistics costs."
"It's also been complemented by an improvement in the past year in global sugar prices. And the final payment, which is due the first Monday of November, we do believe that there is also potential for upside there."
Jules Vasquez
"So you described the historic, the record high second payment. However, it is in a season that has been a disappointment in terms of overall yield and productivity."
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, ASR/BSI
"This year we milled about just over 40,000 tons more sugar cane, but we produce a little less sugar."
"So the ratio of tons cane to tons sugar was worse this year compared to last year. If we can try to ensure that the harvesting practices that are being deployed are improved, we could from the same cane ensure that we're getting more yields and that will result in better sugar prices."
