The Guatemalan Sugar Industry supports forest nurseries for reforestation

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry has formulated and implemented a strategy for reforestation on the South of the country. Since 2011, with the support of the Private Institute for Climate Change Research -ICC-, it has established forest nurseries as the basis of the Reforestation Plan that began on Saturday 22nd in commemoration of Arbor Day in Guatemala.

From 2011 to 2020, a total of 5.9 million trees have been produced in 88 nurseries located in 10 departments of the country.

In the nurseries, 29 species of trees are grown such as cedar, mahogany, eucalyptus, pine, cypress, among others.

Nurseries to support reforestation are municipal, regional / institutional, business and community. In the latter, the settlers provide the place, the labor for all the work of the nursery, the land; and the ICC supports with seeds and inputs necessary for the cultivation, as well as technical advice in conjunction with the National Institute of Forests -INAB-.

The importance of community nurseries is that forest culture is promoted, which helps to conserve natural forests close to the communities.

27 April, 2021

Cengicaña celebrates 29 years of supporting the technological advance of the Guatemalan Sugar Industry

In 1992, the Guatemalan Sugar Industry made the decision to create a specialized center for sugar cane research. This is how the Guatemalan Center for Research and Training of Sugar Cane -Cengicaña- was born, which today celebrates 29 years of working to support the technological advance of the Sugar Industry.

Research on sugar addresses many topics which are grouped into five programs: varieties, integrated pest management, agronomy, industrial research, and training and transfer.

Climate change and technology

Cengicaña has developed cane varieties that contain more sugar and are more resistant to diseases. In addition, they are adaptable to the varied environmental conditions of the Guatemalan sugar cane zone. Cengicaña scientists have a National Collection made up of 3,085 varieties of cane, which is used for crosses and studies of the plant.

In the case of the Integrated Pest Management program, Cengicaña scientists combat sugarcane pests with biology, by looking for natural enemies of fungi and bacteria, and even owls and hawks.

Cengicaña scientists rely on technological tools for research on plant fertilization and nutrition, irrigation, precision agriculture, among others. In the area of precision agriculture, satellite images from the European Space Agency and NASA are used to monitor humidity and determine the maturity of the cane for harvest. In addition, in irrigation, the development of the app Cengiriego to optimize the use of irrigation water in sugar cane stands out.

Renewable energy production

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry is a world benchmark for the generation of renewable energy from sugarcane bagasse, a residue of sugar production. Cengicaña’s industrial research program has helped the sugar mills increase their power generation.

This has been a key factor in ensuring that the Sugar Industry generates up to 35% of the Guatemala’s electricity demand. In addition, with the renewable energy produced by the sugar mills, up to 4 million tons of CO2 is prevented from reaching the environment.

On this day we congratulate the scientists of Cengicaña who with their work help to make the Guatemalan Sugar Industry a sustainable sector.

23 April, 202120 July, 2021

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry works on restoration and conservation

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry is committed to a sustainable agriculture that is adaptable to climate change, with that objective supports the conservation and recovery of forests on riverbanks and upper parts of the basins, care of the soils that include green manure and conservation and recovery practices for the ecosystem such as fish farming, among others.

Forest recovery and conservation

In alliance with the Private Institute for Climate Change -ICC-, since 2011 the Guatemalan Sugar Industry has contributed to the recovery and conservation of forests by planting more than 5.9 million trees in the upper basin and riverbanks that flow into the South of Guatemala.

As part of this effort, 284 hectares of land have been reforested on the banks of the rivers of the South of the country alone, equivalent to 400 football fields, creating gallery forests and biological corridors.

These forests on the banks of rivers help to recharge water, to conserve soils by avoiding erosion and are also natural barriers that prevent floods, while they are home to species of flora and fauna.

In addition, the Guatemalan Sugar Industry has 2,507 hectares of natural forests, which are protected and cared for, and are part of the agro-landscape of the South of Guatemala and benefit the conservation of biological diversity.

Soil conservation

Since 2012, the Guatemalan Sugar Industry has worked hand in hand with the Guatemalan Center for Research and Training of Sugar Cane -Cengicaña- and the ICC in the development and implementation of practices for soil conservation.

One of these important practices is the plowing or the disposition of the land for the cultivation of sugarcane, so that it can better absorb water and nutrients, which preserves fertility and prevents erosion and flooding.

In addition, the Sugar Industry has implemented green manure through the sowing of legume plants that return nitrogen to the soil naturally. Sugarcane cultivation is renewed every 5 years to maintain its yield, so that, in the ideal areas, this renewal is used to rest and nourish the soil with the sowing of a legume that takes between 6 and 8 months in the field.

Legumes are the only group of plants that can capture nitrogen from the air and incorporate it into their body. When they are mixed with the soil, they contribute organic matter that improves the texture and structure of the soil. In addition, it promotes the proliferation of microorganisms that are beneficial for crops.

Crop rotation also helps in pest control because, by exchanging the cane for legumes, the life cycle of the insects that feed on the sugar cane is broken.

Release of native fish into rivers

Another program implemented by the refineries is to enrich the fauna in the rivers. This activity called “stocking fish” aims to increase the population of native species in the rivers of the South of Guatemala. The Sugar Industry, with the support of the ICC, has released around 50,000 fingerlings or small fish into the rivers.

29 March, 202129 March, 2021

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry has build internal roads to transport sugarcane

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry has created an internal network of roads that benefits dozens of communities on the South of the country. Currently, more than 83% of the sugarcane is transported by internal roads.

Internal roads are those that go between the sugarcane fields and that communicate with the factories. These internal roads help to reduce the circulation of trucks loaded with sugarcane on national routes, while serving communities as an alternative road.

There are more than 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) of internal roads that the Guatemalan Sugar Industry has built and receive maintenance year after year, helping to significantly reduce the traffic of sugarcane on national highways.

Actions for responsible transport

Among the actions for a responsible transport is also the control and monitoring of the speed of the cane transport. The maximum speed in communities and school zones is 20 km/h (12 mph) and 40 km/h (25 mph) on internal roads.

There are also signalmen or flaggers in the sections where the sugarcane transport crosses the roads to avoid accidents.

Thanks to an agreement between the Guatemalan Sugar Industry and the Technical Training Institute -Intecap-, all pilots who transport sugarcane are trained and certified by said institution to guarantee that they have the skills to perform the task.

In addition, more and more women are joining the pilots’ workforce, which contributes to the inclusion of women in agricultural operations.

18 January, 202119 January, 2021

Crusade for Nutrition in Guatemala reached more than 9,900 children with the assistance of the Sugar Foundation

Great National Crusade for Nutrition in the South Cost

The Sugar Foundation -Fundazucar- supported the Great National Crusade for Nutrition in Guatemala after signing an alliance with the Secretariat of Food and Nutrition Security of Guatemala -Sesan- and the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance -MSPAS-, in which more than 9 thousand children were tested to detect cases of malnutrition.

This strategic alliance made possible the detection of cases of acute malnutrition in boys and girls; and to achieve so, Fundazucar formed brigades to search for such cases in four departments of the South of Guatemala between August and December 2020.

Fundazucar’s brigades reached 112 communities located in 16 municipalities on the South of Guatemala where they tested 9,919 children for signs of malnutrition.

After the tests, 65 cases of children with acute malnutrition were detected, their mothers received a food plan through a nutritionist, counseling, and the children are now under the surveillance of the Government Ministry of Health, with weight and height monitoring.

17 November, 202020 July, 2021

Zafra 2020/21 begins, a season of sweetness and development

Zafra 2020-2021 began with safety mesures

Zafra 2020/21 begins, a season of sweetness and development

The Zafra has started with a “Return to work Protocol with Occupational Health and Safety measures against COVID-19”.

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry began the 2020/21 harvest under strict measures for the prevention of Covid-19 with the commitment to guarantee the supply of sugar, alcohol, and energy for millions of families.

The Zafra begins each year in November and ends in May, a time during which economic reactivation is propitiated in the South of Guatemala, due to the generation of jobs and the hiring of hundreds of suppliers of products and services.

Measures that sugar mills have adopted in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic

The production of food and energy are essential; therefore, the Guatemalan Sugar Industry is committed to Guatemala and the world to guarantee the supply of sugar, alcohol, and electricity.

The sugar mills continue their operations under strict preventive measures to provide a safe work environment, following Occupational Health and Safety protocols and the dispositions of the authorities.

In order to maintain sanitary measures, there is the: “Return to work protocol with Occupational Health and Safety measures against COVID-19“, which has been designed and formulated by the Guatemalan Sugar Industry with COVID-19 preventive measures to apply in administrative, agricultural and industrial areas.

This protocol was created based on the Presidential Provisions, the Protocol of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS), the Guatemalan Social Security Institute (IGSS), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). Each sugar mill adopts and adapts it to its daily operation, within the terms of the Law and the Epidemiological Surveillance System of the Occupational Health and Safety Union Policy.

Production projection for the 2020/21 Zafra

For the 2020/21 Zafra, the production expectation will remain between 2.6 and 2.7 metric tons of sugar.

According to the projection, the production of the 2020/21 Zafra in quintals is equivalent approximately to 57 and 58 million quintals of sugar. Guatemala is the third country with the highest productivity in the world, obtaining an average of 10.6 tons of sugar for each hectare of cane cultivated.

For this harvest, the cultivated area is 250,662 hectares and according to the Forest Cover Map prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food -MAGA-, the cultivation of sugarcane represents 3.3% of the arable area of the country.

During the 2019/20 harvest, 56 thousand direct jobs and 280 thousand indirect jobs were generated, benefiting 90% of the municipalities of Guatemala with the economic footprint of Sugar.

Guatemalan Sugar in the world

Guatemala is the second largest sugar exporter in Latin America and the fourth worldwide; it also has the third place in productivity at the global level with respect to obtaining sugar per hectare of cultivated cane.

The main export markets in the 2019/20 Zafra were Canada, the United States, Chile, Mauritania, Taiwan, China, New Zealand, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Senegal. For this year, countries such as Romania and Equatorial Guinea are added, to which sugar from Guatemala will be exported for the first time.

These exports, added to those of alcohol and molasses, represent 7% of the country’s exports in 2019, according to figures from the Bank of Guatemala.

Renewable energy production

There are 11 sugar mills, and they operate in the departments of Escuintla, Santa Rosa, Suchitepequez and Retalhuleu. In addition to producing sugar, they generate renewable electricity. During the previous harvest, the mills served up to 35% of the national energy demand.

During the 2019/20 harvest, the Guatemalan Sugar Industry generated 1,991 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable energy; 8.6% more than what was generated during the previous season 2018/19, when 1,834 GWh were generated. Contributing to the diversification of the energy matrix and the stability of the electricity rate in the country.

7 October, 202012 November, 2020

The harvest Season in Guatemala means development

The Harvest Season known as “Zafra” generates more than 56 thousand direct jobs and more than 280 thousand indirect jobs in Guatemala and is a booster for the economy.

There are many trade opportunities that arise during the Zafra season. Businesses increase their sales, which promotes the growth of the local economy and the generation of jobs. The sugar mills generate 56 thousand direct jobs and 280 thousand indirect jobs during the Harvest Season.

In addition, around 6,300 suppliers, among them 5,635 small and micro-businesses and the rest of medium and large companies, sell equipment and materials to the sugar mills and create jobs in the process.

Among the companies that provide services to sugar mills are laboratories, workshops, food companies, tire shops, sales and rental of heavy machinery, cane producers, technology companies, oil companies, hardware stores, transportation services and gas stations.

Also, businesses on the South of the country, including pharmacies, shoe stores, warehouses, shops, hotels, restaurants, and markets are benefited by the economic movement generated by the Zafra.

That is why the start of the 2020/2021 Zafra will help the economic reactivation of the region and the country while the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues.

The Guatemalan Sugar Industry maintains its commitment to the production of sugar, alcohol and energy for Guatemala and the world. The sugar mills are prepared to start the 2020/2021 harvest and have adopted the Return to Work Protocol with Occupational Health and Safety measures against COVID-19.