Sugar industry recovers with sweet harvest

Bridge tenders get lift with transportation work
December 20, 2010
State treasury has $447M in unclaimed funds
December 22, 2010
Bridge tenders get lift with transportation work
December 20, 2010
State treasury has $447M in unclaimed funds
December 22, 2010

Following a flooded harvest season in 2009, the Louisiana sugar cane industry expects to post good numbers at the conclusion of the last quarter of a harvest season that also saw the selling price rise with the demand of U.S. sugar on the world market.

“So far, the harvest season has been a very good harvest season for the growers,” said Windell Jackson, senior agronomist at the American Sugar Cane League. “The tonnage was somewhat lighter than originally expected, but the sugar content per stalk was higher than average. All in all, it’s going to turn out to be a fairly good crop for the state as a whole.”


The ASCL conducted a mid-month survey in November and will do the same this month. Based on last month’s findings, Jackson projected 31.5 n 32 tons of stalk produced per acre and 1.4 million short tons of raw sugar produced across the state, which farms the crop on about 420,000 acres.


“Anytime we can produce 1.4 million tons of sugar, we’ve had a very successful year,” Jackson said. “We’re probably going to [produce] over 9 percent less than last year’s tonnage and we’re still going to make about the same amount of sugar because of the dry harvest season.”

Contracts for Sugar No. 14 futures have risen to an average of 34 cents per pound in 2010, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The previous two years averaged 21.90 in 2009 and 21.06 in 2008.


Sugar No. 14 sold for 40 cents in February, the highest average monthly price since October of 1980.


Jackson said the primary reason for the price increase is foreign markets are struggling to yield their expected production totals.

The harvest season ended yesterday for Lafourche Sugars. General Manager Greg Nolan said the area brought in less revenue than last year, and it finished as an “average” season.


Nolan said the mill was able to grind 830,000 tons of stalk per acre versus 1.1 million last year. Total sugar production declined from 220,000 pounds to 180,000 this year.


“We had a bad drought right before grinding this year, where it stunted that growth of that cane,” Nolan said. “We didn’t get the full production out of it. You know, Mother Nature can be pretty brutal to us.”

One year after an abundance of rain increased the cost of production and at the tail end of a season that saw a lack of rain decrease the amount of production, Nolan said next year projects to be good, weather pending.


“We didn’t damage any stubble,” he said. “The fields are all in good shape. Depending on cold weather and rain for next year, we should have a good year.”

Last harvest season, farmers planted 421,000 acres across the state and 14 million metric tons of cane were produced. Total sugar production was 1.4 million short tons of raw value. Although it was a strong harvest, environmental issues drove up the production cost.

“Last year was an extremely wet crop,” Jackson said. “Even with the wet crop, the tonnage was good and the sugar recoveries were good. But it was a very costly harvest. For the good season that we’ve had this year, the cost of harvest, getting the cane to the mill, has been significantly less.”

The rain-heavy season caused “knee-deep ruts,” and subsequent drainage problems for the farmers, who had to use two tractors per wagon and operate in a lower gear, adding to the diesel costs.

The volume of planted stalk, which had decreased in acreage for seven consecutive years beginning in 2001, increased the past two years and has held steady at 421,000 acres in 2010, according to the ASCL.

In 2000, total planted acres in Louisiana hit an all-time high at 496,000 before annual decreases brought it to 415,000 in 2007, according to the ASCL.

As with any agricultural business, the aim is to balance production with volume. In 1999, the industry produced 37 metric tons of gross cane per acre and 1.68 million short tons of sugar (the highest totals since at least 1969), according to ASCL. This led to an 8 percent increase in planted cane volume in 2000.

In 2000, the numbers declined to 33.7 metric tons per acre with and 1.57 million short tons of raw sugar.

In 2007, when the volume of acres planted was at the lowest it had been in 10 years, the state’s cane industry produced 1.48 million short tons of sugar, the fourth highest total since 1999.

“Part of the decline [until 2008] was in those outlying areas, the price had been so stagnant for so long that it was becoming unprofitable for them to ship cane over that large acreage,” Jackson said. “So the price of soybeans went up, the price of corn went up, and they can grow corn and other crops up [north], so there was a shift out of sugar cane into other small grains that were possible at the time.”

Jackson went on to say the sugar industry has become more appealing to northern Louisiana farmers because of the sugar price increase versus the decline in other crop prices, despite the fact it is a more long-term investment compared to other crops. Sugar cane, because it is a grass, provides three to four harvests while corn and other seed harvests can be replaced after one bad harvest.

Farmers at WL Farms off Grand Caillou Road harvest the sugar cane fields. Across the state, the harvest has rebounded after a disappointing 2009 harvest, but Lafourche Sugars reported an “average” season. MIKE NIXON TRI-PARISH TIMES