The winds and rains of hurricane “Lisa”, which had a strong impact on Belize, left thousands of hectares of sugar cane “flattened” on the banks of the Hondo River, on the border with Belize.
The president of the Local Union of Sugar Cane Producers, Evaristo Gómez Díaz, said that for the moment the exact damage is unknown, so this Friday they will make evaluation tours since there are many primary and secondary roads that are flooded and there is fear as rains continue in the area.
He called on all sugarcane producers who have insured their plots and who have suffered losses due to hurricane “Lisa”, to go to the offices of the local sugarcane organization to report the loss to the Catastrophic Agricultural Insurance.
He explained that most of the 16 ejidos along the banks of the Hondo River that produce sugar cane have been affected, but the most severe damage is in the lower areas because there are reports of sugar cane plantations that were flooded.
The cane that was left behind by the strong winds of the hurricane that hit Belize and part of the southern zone of Quintana Roo last Tuesday, directly affected the harvest because although the plant does not die, it does increase harvesting costs, since now it will take longer for a cane cutter, due to the difficulty of cutting the cane in that state.
Gómez Díaz said that the greatest concern is for the almost 4,000 hectares of recently planted plantations that were flooded by the rainfall.
The sugarcane growers have Catastrophic Agricultural Insurance, which protects against flood damage, so it will be necessary to carry out an evaluation and determine the extent of the damage.
Meanwhile, the 2022-2023 harvest, scheduled to begin milling tests with the raw cane on November 6 and the first burns on November 8, to officially start in the middle of the month, will depend on weather conditions in the coming days.
TYT Newsroom
