B.S.I. Rep. Responds to Assertions Made by Jose Mai

Olivia Avilez

This evening, the Cane Farmers Relations Manager for A.S.R./B.S.I., Olivia Avilez, stopped by News Five to clarify the miller’s position on the matter. She contends that the charge is much ado about nothing.

Olivia Avilez, Cane Farmers Relations Manager, B.S.I.

“From the F.A.S. we still have to get that sugar to, in this case for EU raw sugar, the port of the customer. Once it reaches the Port of Belize, we also have to deduct from the F.A.S. value the cost from Tower Hill Factory to the mill. All of that we itemize in our cane price and we show famers how we reach the net trip value. The net trip value is what we use in our commercial agreement because that is what we then share: sixty five percent for our farmers and thirty five percent for B.S.I.  Again this is stipulated in our commercial agreement.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Has this been communicated to the three associations?”

Olivia Avilez

“Of course. We have a good relationship with our farmers contrary to what it looks like. We had a meeting right after the first letter was issued for second payment and we looked at some of the things that they were looking at as well. We actually did a revised of that letter. We had a meeting. We revised it. We reissued it. We communicated with them. They are very much aware of the commercial agreement. The assertions being made are not from one particular association, it is one farmer/politician that is making these assertions.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Did is not the first that the term, F.A.S., is being used when it comes to the estimates.”

Olivia Avilez

“No. It is not the first time and it is not only used with one type of sugar. It is used to show farmers the value of sugar at the Port of Belize before you start to incur cost regarding shipping or exporting that sugar.”