B.S.I. Says B.S.C.F.A. is Being Irrational with Its Demands

The dispute between the American Sugar Refinery, Belize Sugar Industries Limited and the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association has gone on for the better part of a year and perhaps almost for two years now. With no commercial agreement signed yet, both parties are also yet to agree on a mediator who will attempt to walk them through the stormy waters as the next crop is scheduled to open on December nineteenth. The association has accused the company of concealing figures of revenues and market sales, while the company says the association is being irrational with its demands of wanting more returns for the cane its members deliver to the mill. Today, the company’s Financial Director, Shawn Chavarria gave us, yet again, their position.

Shawn Chavarria

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, A.S.R./B.S.I.

“The farmers and the association get these statements. These statements are audited, so what we rely on is that the auditors have done their due diligence in reviewing all the revenues and all the costs associated with that. And that right is also being provided, so the matter of the registry, really I’m not sure what B.S.C.F.A is trying to portray because we do our annual returns. I think what they are saying is that we have not published our director’s report like we used to do. But that has no bearing on how farmers are paid because farmers are paid based on the Net Strip Value from the sale of sugar and molasses, which is the revenue, less the shipping expenses. Our thirty-five percent and how we spend that is then within the confines of our operations, right. But in terms of what we need to report to the farmers, we do everything that we need to do that’s in the commercial agreement.”