And while they hope the yield per acre improves, what about the cane. Left standing in the field after the season is finished?
The Minister of Agriculture told us on Monday that up to 100 thousand tons of sugarcane could not be harvested due to a number of factors. So, who's to blame for it? Director of finance for BSI gave us more details today on what are those factors behind the standing cane. Here's what he said.
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, ASR/BSI
"The reason why we have standing cane is due to a combination of factors the media might recall that at the start of this crop we had this impasse with the BSCFA where there was road blockages and they held up delivery for about twelve to 14 days and prior to that the company had wanted to start the crop from the 16th of December but the date of the crop was not gazetted by the sugar industry control board and that date was instead gazetted until the 28th of December so the late start of the crop which was not gazetted by the SICB combined with these road blockages and then at the end of the crop we had these heavy rains that started much earlier than usual from the 8th of June we started receiving heavy rains that disrupted deliveries for the subsequent month and so the combination of these factors is what has resulted in their being standing cane at the end and so this highlights what we have been saying all along that it's really important that we start the crop early and try to avoid the rainy season."
