A Hundred and Twenty-five Tons of Sugar Lost At Sea

On Sunday, a barge belonging to Belize Sugar Industries capsized off the coast of Corozal.  Sinking along with the faulty vessel was almost a hundred and twenty-five tons of sugar destined for the global market.  While the value of the loss has not been disclosed, it is estimated to be in the thousands.  The sinking of the freight boat resulted from a leak which subsequently led to a rupture.  Today, News Five spoke by phone with BSI’s marketing manager Damian Gough.

Via Phone: Damian Gough, Marketing Manager, B.S.I.

Via Phone: Damian Gough

“Sunday night during transit of the barge from the factory in Orange walk down to the Harbor in Belize City where it was to have been loaded on a ship that was out there, around seven, seven – thirty the captain of the tug boat that was pulling the barge, notified us that the barge was leaking and that it was pulling in water. He was instructed to turn around and try to get back to our docking facility in Libertad so we could have tried to figure out what was wrong. Apparently the leak turned out to be much worse than we had anticipated and so it started to sink and we had to abandon that mission and it went down maybe a little before midnight. So in a vicinity known as our point which is just off the Sarteneja coastline of the Corozal District.”

Isani Cayetano

“In terms of tonnage can you speak as to how much sugar was lost?”

Via Phone: Damian Gough

“One of those barges normally take a hundred and twenty, hundred and twenty five tons, but this is one of the risks we are exposed to because of the methodology we us to transfer the sugar to the mills. As a result of that we do carry an extensive marine insurance so even though the sugar has been damaged or lost due to the insurance that we have we expect that the lost should be minimal.”