Soaring Prices Fuel Sugarcane Planting

Salvadoran Sugar farmers will plant an additional 8,000 acres of the plant between 2012 and 2013.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Between the harvest which will finish in April this year, and the next sowing in October, producers expect an increase in areas planted with sugar cane, said an industry executive.

The executive director of the Association of Sugarcane Growers (Procaña), Luis Trigueros, explained that they predict an extra 8,000 hectares planted by the end of the 2012/2013 harvest. Sugar cane is usually located on flat areas, on the coast and in the north.

For this harvest, growers are experiencing very good yields. Each hectare is yielding an average of 65 tons of cane, with some areas reaching 70 and others as low as 55. Such figures were not achieved since 2007, when yields averaged 61.36 tons per hectare.

The price of Salvadoran sugar for export follows international market trends. The price has remained above $20 per ton since 2010. Profits are divided into 55% for cane growers and 45% for the mills.

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