South Texas was once home to the farmer-owned Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers (RGVSG) cooperative, comprised of more than 100 family farmers growing sugarcane and a raw sugar mill in Santa Rosa.
Due to Mexico’s failure to deliver the water it owes the United States under the 1944 Water Treaty, the mill is now shuttered and the few remaining acres of sugarcane plowed under.
Jennifer Cervantes, who has represented these farmers for more than 15 years, painted a picture of a once vibrant sugarcane industry in her statements before a House Appropriations Committee member briefing. Read her statement as prepared.
Nearly 40,000 acres of sugarcane once grew in the Rio Grande Valley, fueling the sugar mill and providing approximately 500 jobs critical to these rural communities. The loss of the RGVSG has been felt across the entire region.
“[The RGVSG cooperative] was a vital part of the region's agricultural sector and the sugar supply chain in the U.S. The industry contributed over $200 million annually to the Texas economy, was the only producer of raw sugar in Texas, and was one of only three sugarcane-producing states left in the U.S.,” Cervantes said.
The steep decline in sugarcane acreage in Texas can be directly attributed to Mexico’s decision to not deliver the water it owes the U.S. With irrigation water supplies at critical levels, and with little water coming from Mexico, growers were forced to make the hard decision to plow out their sugarcane. In early 2023, sugarcane acreage fell from 34,000 to 16,500, and then again to 10,000 acres in early 2024. Now, there are zero acres planted to sugarcane in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Investing in and conducting required maintenance on the sugar mill to continue operating was infeasible,” Cervantes explained. “Without a sugar mill to process harvested sugarcane, the remaining sugarcane acres were plowed out – with growers bearing the losses.”
The closure of the RGVSG cooperative mill and the significant loss of agricultural production has economic consequences and national food security implications.
“Strength in our supply chains, especially for food production, occurs when diverse locations across the country can sustain production, allowing a poor crop in one region to be offset by good harvests in other regions. Mexico is blatantly appropriating water that rightfully belongs to the United States, enhancing its food security while undermining ours,” she said.
American farmers cannot survive when other countries fail to uphold their international agreements. The U.S. government must immediately support strong enforcement of the 1944 Water Treaty and ensure Mexico delivers water in a timely manner.
Cervantes stressed the urgency of the situation in Texas, asking Congress and the Trump Administration to “reset our posture with Mexico on this Treaty before more agriculture is plowed under and more livelihoods are lost.”