1. Belize Sugar: Planning for the Future
Celestino Ruiz and Mac McLachlan
February, 2015

2. Strategic Development Plan
SDP needs to be concluded within a year of signing the new commercial agreements. Government, farmers and BSI each need to sign the SDP for it to come into effect. SDP will be agreed by consensus.
SDP will include a road map of how to overcome a range of inter- related challenges to make the industry sustainable.
BSI contributing through a strategy paper. Key elements include:
Crop productivity
Mill efficiency
Mill and power plant expansion
Investment requirements, farm and mill, to achieve expansion
How to achieve a suitable return on investment to realise the expansion
What happens if we don’t.

3. Why Do We Need an SDP
Changing global dynamics means status quo is not sustainable, current NY No 11 price for sugar US$14 cents; cost of production in Belize US$20 – 22 cents: need to reduce sugar production costs.
World prices unlikely to increase significantly due to over supply of sugar.
EU prices also falling, due to a change in EU regulation to liberate constraints on beet sugar production in 2017.
Investment needed to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for the industry, but investment needs to be viable.
Present industry structure unable to deliver efficiencies required to remain globally competitive – small scale farming, size of mill, lack of credit, poor investment climate.

4. Fundamentals of a Sustainable Sugar Industry
Mill
Efficient
Reliable
Sufficient capacity
Financially sound
Farm
Good cane quality/farm productivity
Efficient harvesting and delivery
Sufficient credit/resource to manage farm efficiently
Sufficient equipment to reduce farming costs
Right Political and Economic Conditions to Prosper
Reliable market and competitive industry
Regulation where regulation is needed; none where it is not
Sound investment climate and resources to enable industry growth and development
Government support for the industry

5. Challenges Facing the Sugar Industry of Belize

6. Mill /Power Plant What we have What we need Efficient mill at 1.3MT
Co-generation plant providing power and steam for milling 1.3MT
Solvent business
Skilled workforce
Good platform for expansion, but investment climate not currently conducive to make the investment
Production costs for sugar (around US$ Cents 20 – 22 per lb)
What we need
Increased mill and power plan capacity: expansion to mill 1.8/2MT cane to reduce production cost of sugar to make it globally competitive (US$ Cents 15 per lb)
Resources for expansion project (US$100 – 150m): additional turbine and boiler; bigger mill; enhanced logistics, investment only possible when:
Sequenced with increased cane supply, by increasing cane productivity (to 1.8/2MT) and quality
Investment climate which enabler a return on investment (investment needs to be economically and commercially viable, from 35% factory value share and against projected falling market prices), this requires:
Government support and political climate to make investment possible
Increase in prices paid for co-generated electricity; domestic sugar

7. Sugar Cane Production What we have What we need
Around 1.3 MT of cane on approcimately77K acres of land
Farm yields of around average 17 tons per acre
5,500 private cane farmers, dedicated to sugar production
95% hand cut cane, but taskforce established to expand potential for chopper harvested cane
Poor farm information, but new SIMIS in progress
Predominantly one cane variety, B79
Farmers resourced by commercial banks and EU re-planting fund
What we need
Increased cane supply, by increasing cane productivity and quality (to 1.8/2MT), achieved by:
Systematic re-planting and improved husbandry practices
Introduction of greater varietal selection to provide early, mid, late maturing cane harvests
A harvesting and delivery system that reduces harvesting costs and is flexible to respond to changes in the industry while improving cane quality
To protect small farmers from growing costs by shifting to larger farming units in the form of cooperatives
Credit facilities provided by development partners at affordable terms, structured to farmers’ needs, to provide land and harvesting inputs (estimated around US$10 million per year)
Autonomous extension services provided to farmers to improve productivity and feed information to SIMIS

8. Sugar Industry Farmer Profile: # of Farmers.

9. Logistics: Factory to Ship
What we have
Fleet of antiquated tugs and barges which navigate a 122 mile stretch to river/sea to load sugar directly to ship, at a rate of around 700 tons per day
Current logistical capacity to transport 120K tons of sugar from factory to ship
Costly movement of sugar and molasses from factory to alongside ship
Slow loading rate adds to transport costs
High stevedoring and harbour costs
Lack of a deep water port means only smaller vessels can load Belize sugar, which often means more costly freight rates
Knowledge of freight market which secures the best rates available, under the circumstances
What we need
A deep water port and storage/loading facilitates (unlikely within the next five years)
Increased loading rate (to 4,000 tons/day)
Improved transport logistics – new, larger barges/tugs, improved loading methods
Investment climate which guarantees a return on the investment
Investment to achieve this (estimated around US$20 million) , sequenced with:
Increased sugar production to achieve greater scale economies thereby increasing efficiency and reducing costs of transporting sugar to ship

10. Infrastructure of Northern Belize
What we have
Inadequate conditions of sugar roads, on which farmers depend to deliver their crop
Rain fed farms, subject to climatic variation
Inadequate drainage, which leads to stand over and poor quality cane
Government budget for infrastructure spread across a number of ministries
What we need
Greater government co-ordination and planning to maintain and improve the infrastructure of Northern Belize, utilising:
Satellite-based topographical information to plan for a consolidated drainage programme
District wide road development plans, utilising donor support where possible/necessary
Long term budget set aside for this activity

11. Political and Economic Conditions
What we need
Political support for the SDP
Amend legislation to facilitate the implementation of the SDP
Sound investment climate to enable implementation of SDP
Government resources committed to sustainability of the sugar industry
Government support through development agencies to provide industry financing

12. Next Steps
Stakeholders needs to develop a Strategic Development Plan (SDP)
Launch of ASR/BSI contribution to SDP: a strategic plan
SDP should be based on outcome of working groups formed to take forward different elements of the plan, which will present recommendations to a Steering Group comprised of industry stakeholders
Membership of working groups should be drawn from a cross section of industry stakeholders, weighted to specific subject matter
Need a dynamic process. Timelines need to be set for each component of the plan
These need to be sequenced together to form the industry plan
Steering Group should maintain an implementation monitoring role to deliver the plan

13. Credit Facilities for Cane Farmers
Farmers need:
Affordable credit
Credit structured to lead to sustainable business units
Must include re-financing, to move the industry beyond its indebted-past
Industry needs to be able to re-plant 7,500 acres of cane per year to rejuvenate farm in 10 years
This equates to around US$10 million per year
Result will raise yields of cane from 17 tons per acre to around 30
This will increase incomes at a time that cane prices are falling
With other elements of the SDP, this will contribute to reducing production cost of sugar to make it globally competitive and sustainable
Need a farm credit working group to look at existing facilities and new facilitates to make this work: roles of commercial banking community, development banks and government.