Mexican Cane Growers Block 54 Sugar Mill Warehouses

MEXICO CITY, (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- Mexican sugar growers have blocked local market access of the new 2008-09 sugar harvest from warehouses belonging to all 54 mills currently active, the National Sugar Cane Growers Union said Friday.

Union President Carlos Blackaller said in a statement the growers would block all access for 24 hours to protest lower domestic purchasing prices in the current harvest cycle.

Blackaller said that local bulk prices so far - at about 300 pesos per 50-kilogram bag - have been 13.5% below the level paid in the last harvest, for 2007-08 season.
He said the union called on mills across the country to intervene over the low prices. He also accused mills under the government-administered Feesa group of causing part of the current "distortion of the local market," which Blackaller said was at the root of the problem.


The union, however, did not offer an explanation of how the Feesa mills were to blame for the current lower prices. The union also did not suggest how the mills were supposed to intervene.
The union frequently goes on strikes either in the last month leading up to the harvest start in mid-November or at the peak of harvest activity in February and March. In the latter period, mills and growers are negotiating cane prices for the crop.

Mexico's sugar industry includes 270,000 cane growers, in addition to employing 130,000 workers including cane cutters. Indirectly, an estimated 3.5 million people - many of the most isolated parts of the country - rely on sugar for their livelihood.

source: marketwatch