Sale of Sugar Across the Borders Requires Permit
Earlier this week, News Five aired a story on the shortage of sugar on supermarket shelves. The shortage is not occurring in the output from the Belize Sugar Industries, but somewhere along the supply chain, the bags of sugar that are produced are disappearing, presumably across the borders as contraband in neighbouring countries. Belizean sugar is being sought because of its prices, which are much cheaper than the sugar in the region. The Belize Sugar Industries issued a press release today in which it addressed the issue. B.S.I. says that in order to deter the contraband of sugar across the borders, it has been advising successive governments for years that the price of sugar, particularly brown sugar, needs to be increased to be on the same level with global market prices to avoid contraband. Today, News Five spoke with the Director of the Supplies Control Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lennox Nicholson, who said that it is illegal to sell sugar to neighbouring countries without getting a permit. He added that in order for there to be some level of control of the sugar being sold across the borders, it would require the assistance of other government entities.
On the phone: Lennox Nicholson
On the phone: Lennox Nicholson, Director, Supplies Control Unit, Min. of Agric.
“I have no evidence to conclusively say which party in the distribution chain are actually responsible for that. But it is clear, I think to everybody that the product intended for the domestic market is not remaining here and that the domestic market is not being adequately supplied based on the information that has been provided to us by BSI. It is not a question of production. Just today, we had a conversation with them, so it’s not an output or production problem. So the difficulties or the issues are arising, arising downstream. Now, certainly this particular office does not have the capability and wherewithal for any sort of prevention on the borderline or at the points of import exportation. So in that light, we would definitely have to engage and call on the support of some of the agencies with more expertise and capabilities in terms of preventing illegal exportation and things of that nature. Sugar is a product that requires a license from our office to be legally exported from the country, right. There has not been any application that has crossed my desk for exportation of sugar to Guatemala or Mexico. So those movements would not be movements that could be considered legal or formal export, exportation. I can confirm that in fact the company has engaged. Government over a period of time to address the matter of price, and I can confirm to you that there is a current submission that has been made, um, specifically looking at the price of brown sugar in particular, and that submission has been received the time it is at our office. There were some additional details that that we needed that has been requested of BSI and the company has provided that information to us. Of course, the changing of control prices is a matter of government policy, and it is a matter that would require the involvement of the cabinet to take a final decision.”
