The cane crop closed on June 20th and the outturn is disappointing: It's the lowest volume of cane produced and delivered in 34 years. This is also the least amount of sugar produced.
We asked Minister Osmond Martinez, who is responsible for the sugar industry, about this today and he disagrees.
Reporter (Jomarie Lanza)
"The cane industry numbers are in and it shows the lowest amount of cane produced and delivered in 34 years, lowest amount of sugar produced also. As the minister of the sugar industry, do you feel any responsibility for this?"
Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Ministry of Economic Transformation
"I respectfully disagree on it because the tons of sugar are higher than last year, so the conversion of cane tons of cane to tons of sugar conversion was much better this year. And while in the north, the harvest has been put to a close for this year, nonetheless in the west we continue to they are still harvesting. They still have about 70 to 90 tons of sugar in the fields which they are presently harvesting, so it is not completed as yet. But definitely, from the numbers that we have in the north, there is a slight increase in terms of sugar, and in the west, there will be a significant increase in sugar."
