The Sugar Insurance Fund Board (SIFB) is conducting a census

The Sugar Insurance Fund Board (SIFB) is conducting a census to establish the number of planters who have abandoned their fields over the past few years, a worrying trend pointed out by a growing number of cooperatives. 

According to reliable sources, over the past five years about 4,000 sugar cane planters have abandoned their fields. Mr Kreepalloo Sunghoon, Secretary of l‘Association des Petits Planteurs du Nord’ (Association of Small Planters of the North), is worried by the trend. 

Referring to his own cooperative society where a majority of members are aged over 55, Mr Sunghoon said that if this exodus continues there will be no one to take over from the older generation as the younger generation does not show any interest in agriculture. 

There is also the fact that some people inherit land with cane plantations, but they themselves do not possess the know-how to cultivate the cane. But the major problem, he says, is that the cane cultivation is no longer viable for small planters. “No business is viable when it remains static. There is a decline of 36% in the price and the cost of production keeps increasing,” he says. 

“Planters suffer a loss of Rs5,000 for every ton of cane produced. In 2005 there were around 25,000 planters; only 21,000 remain.” The area of agricultural land for cane cultivation also has decreased. Added to that, the price of fertilizers has jumped from Rs400 to Rs1,200 a packet. 

Mr Sunghoon believes there should be an increase in the benefits derived from by-products of sugar cane. “Previously, the by-products were thrown away. But today, these products are used to produce electricity and alcohol so a better price is expected by the planters for selling their cane. 

“Planters neglect 5,000 hectares of cane fields every year. If this trend goes on, Mauritius may lose the quota to supply sugar,” says the secretary of l’Association des Petits Planteurs du Nord. 

Mr Sunghoon hopes that the SIFB census will lead to a quick decision in favour of supporting small planters. Small planters owning fewer than 15 hectares of land produce one third of the sugar in Mauritius. Mauritius produces around 5 million tons of cane and 400,000 tons of sugar annually. 

Meanwhile, sugar producers feared the drought prevailing for the past few months would adversely affect the growth of cane, but the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MSIRI) says the elongation of sugar cane stems remains average. 

Harel Freres, owner of the Belle Vue sugar estate, estimated that the 2011 harvest will decline by 8%. Omnicane is expecting a drop of 10% while the Central Statistics Office forecast that sugar production will be around 400,000 tons, down on 2009. Some sugar estates still hope that production will be “a bit more” than the forecast.