BELMOPAN, Belize, A senior official of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) is holding out hope that the new sugar crop season will begin on Tuesday after sugar cane farmers in the north, represented by various associations signed a one-year interim agreement with the American Sugar Refinery/Belize Sugar Industries Ltd (ASR/BSI)
“…we finally agreed with BSI in regards to an agreement that we had, in a back and forth with them,” said,” said Alfredo Ortega, the chairman of the BSCFA Committee of Management.
He said the signatures had been affixed to the agreement, adding, “as you know, that was the portion that was awaited…so that the crop can start, as put by the board, on the last meeting we had.
“Well, the starting of the crop will be the twenty-seventh (of December) because, as the board agreed on the last meeting, the twenty-seventh was a proposed date, based on the proviso that BSI and BSCFA sign an agreement,” he added.
Ortega said the interim agreement allows the John Briceño administration to amend existing laws to prevent the kinds of stalemate that threaten to frustrate the sugar industry.
“The one-year agreement that we signed with BSI is to allow the government to make changes in the law so that these types of issues and situations that we have been facing come to an end because we have seen that if there are no changes in the law, we will always be in this same situation with BSI.
“So we got into an accord that we will be signing this year to give that opportunity that the government will [put together] a commission of inquiry, and then whatever comes out will be part of the leading information to be placed as law in the act. I want to thank everyone, the media, the cane farmers, the branch chairpersons, the Minister of Agriculture team, and his team. We’re thankful for them for giving us this helping hand,” Ortega added.
The BSCFA and the BSI have been at loggerheads. After almost a year of back and forth, in late October, both parties finally agreed to a mediator’s services following the current agreement’s expiration in January this year.
In October, the BSCFA proposed, among other things, a change in the way revenue from sugarcane is shared, which previously was based on the Net Stripped Value of the product, after transport costs and other related expenses were deducted, to one based on the Gross Proceeds on distribution, without the sugarcane farmers having to pay for the costs of transportation and exportation.
But BSI had described some of the proposals as “very radical,” noting that such a formula could threaten the viability of the entire operation and indicating that the company, after investing hundreds of millions to increase the efficiency of the processes at the factory, might not be willing to invest more in the face of such an unyielding stance.
Earlier this month, Agriculture Minister, Jose Abelardo Mai, said he was hoping for a speedy resolution to the impasse confronting the sugar industry, given that the 2022-2023 sugar crop had been scheduled to commence on December 19.
Mai had warned that each day without a resolution meant that both the miller and the sugar cane farmers were losing and that the local economy could also be affected by a delay in the start of the sugar crop.
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