At the end of the 2012-13 total production from the harvest was 60.049 million quintals of sugar, which is 2,782,000 metric tons.
The harvest that has just concluded, grew by 11% compared to the period 2011-12, when the production reached 54.033 million quintals (2,499,000 metric tons).
According to Armando Boesche, general manager of the Sugar Association of Guatemala (Asazgua), climatic conditions during the last six months "were appropriate, as there were more daylight hours in the time of greatest growth for sugarcane" .
In the last twenty years the sugar industry has been growing at an annual rate of 11%, contributing to 3% of gross domestic product.
According to statistics from the Bank of Guatemala, in 2011 sugar exports accounted for 6.2% of total exports from the country.
The 2011-2012 harvest was very favorable achieving record production of 54.3 million quintals and estimates for 2012-2013 are for 55 million quintals, said Armando Boesche, manager of the Sugar Association of Guatemala (Asazgua).
In the 2011-2012 harvest, completed this month, a "historical record" of 54,330,445 quintals of sugar was harvested.
"It's a record", proclaimed Armando Boesche, general manager of the Sugar Association of Guatemala (Asazgua).
The union leader attributed the good performance to weather conditions which "for the current crop were favorable".
"Of the total harvest this year, it is expected that 34,700,000 quintals will be exported, the remaining product is intended for domestic consumption", reported Prensalibre.com.
Between January and March 2012 $304 million worth was exported and producers are expecting a bumper crop this year.
In the 2010-2011 harvest, there was 44.5 million bushels. Up tp May 13 the figure was 54.1 million, according to figures from the Association of Sugar Producers of Guatemala.
"Influencing the harvest was the fact that there was better weather than last year, rains were normal, no major natural disasters were reported, there was also more sunlight, a situation that buoyed up the sugar harvest," said Marco Augusto Garcia Noriega, president of the Asazgua.
The results of the 2011-2012 harvest will be 10% higher than the previous one, when the crop was affected by bad weather.
The harvest ending in May increased by seven million quintals, amounting to some 53 million bags of sugar, a figure that represents a recovery of 10%, said Marco Augusto Garcia Noriega, president of the Sugar Association of Guatemala (Asazgua).
With an estimated production of 48.4 million bushels, the 2010/2011 harvest begins next Monday.
The estimated production for this crop is lower than that of 2009-2010, which was 50 million bushels, due to excessive rains, according to information from the Sugar Association of Guatemala (ASAZGUA).
"Cane milling will determine the yield per hectare harvested; fungus and humidity which affected crops were focalized and did not extend to other crops," said the general manager of ASAZGUA, Armando Boesche.
The impact of the rain on 12k hectares is expected to cause a 2.5 million hundredweight drop in sugar production.
Armando Boesche, general manager of the Association of Guatemalan Sugar Producers (Asazgua), indicated that the 2010-11 sugar harvest is forecast to be 48.4 million hundredweight, 5% less than in 2009-10.
"The crops worst affected are located in the region of Escuintla, though there is also damage to plantations in Santa Rosa, Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez, according to a technical evaluation carried out by Asazgua," reports Prensa Libre.
Guatemala's sugar growers expect to harvest 48.5 million quintals in the 2009/10 period.
Mario Yarzebski, spokesperson for Asazgua, the association of sugar growers of Guatemala, remarked that these projections are conservative, and that in general terms they expect similar results to 2008/09.
"220.000 hectares were planted with sugar cane in both periods", reported Prensalibre.com.
Armando Boesche, Manager of the Guatemalan Sugarcane Farmers Association, affirmed that the 15 mills in the country are expecting a record of more than 48 million quintals (sacks) of sugar.
The last harvest was lower due to the lack of light that affected the plantations in addition to the low production in new areas.
Guatemala is the fifth largest export of sugar in the world, and sales had generated US$350.2 million as of 23 October, a drop of 27.6% in comparison to the US$483.5 obtained in the same period in 2007, according to data from the Bank of Guatemala.