Rainy harvest costly for Bayou Region’s sugar-cane farmers

In spite of poor harvesting conditions and a below average crop, the sugar industry is having a decent year due to unusually high sugar prices.

Jim Simon, the general manager of the American Sugar Cane League, said that this year’s crop could approach $2 billion in economic impact for the state, up from an average of $1.7 billion over the past few years.

This year’s crop has suffered due to unusually late heat and heavy rains, which make sugar cane plants grow longer than expected. This means they don’t mature as much as they should and produce less sugar per ton of cane.

“In October, we had 92-degree days which is abnormal for us, and we were still getting 4 inches of cane growth in October,” said Greg Nolan, general manager at Lafourche Sugar Corporation in Thibodaux. “As long as the cane is growing, it’s not producing sugar.”

As a result, this year’s crop has greater tonnage, but that only makes up for its lack of sweetness.

“The sugar per ton of cane is about 50 pounds less than last year at this time, but tonnage is up because the immature cane and poor harvest conditions,” said Nolan. “It helps to cover pounds of sugar per acre, but it’s a lot more wear and tear on the farmer and the mills to recover the sugar.”

A rainy harvesting season can also wreak havoc on farmers by causing muddy fields.

“It’s made for a very expensive start for the harvest season,” said Simon. “Muddy conditions mean a lot of equipment failure and breakdowns.”

He said that harvesting conditions pushes the harvesting season back further than usual.

“Usually we try to finish up a little bit before Christmas. This year, all of the growers will be harvesting well into January, some into the second week of January,” said Simon, who added that this puts the crop vulnerable to frost damage.

Nolan explained that in the ideal year, “We want a lot of rain in the growing season which is June, July and August, and then a dry season after that to help the cane mature so that it stores sugar.”

Poor harvesting conditions this year followed a growing season last year that was set back by hurricanes Ike and Gustav.

“Overall last year we had an average crop. If not for the storm, we would’ve had a bumper crop,” said Simon. “The storms were followed by a drought last year that actually helped the cane mature, producing a sweeter harvest.”

According to Simon, sugar cane was planted in approximately 400,000 acres in the state this year, which is down slightly from its peak in the early part of this decade, but up in the context of the last 20 years.

Although corn and cotton accounted for slightly more acreage than cane this year, their economic impact was still less than that of sugar.

The high price of sugar has saved the local sugar industry from a down year, and could be a boon in years to come.

“We’re hopeful that these prices will stick around,” he said. “That would really give our growers a chance to repair and heal their financial situation because the last five to seven years have been really tough in the cane industry.”

Sugar cane growers don’t have much time to rest, and have already begun planting next year’s harvest.

“Next year’s cane crop is about 90 percent planted, and the plants looks very pretty, but that’s all up to Mother Nature,” said Simon.