2023-24 Sugar Crop Delayed Until End of December

The start of the 2023-24 sugar crop has been delayed and the Belize Sugar Industries Limited has voiced its discontent with the decision to postpone the start of production.  In a statement released earlier today, the company said, “after discussions, B.S.I. and the three attending associations agreed to start the crop on December fifteenth, 2023.  The SICB Chairman, who was also present, was requested to proceed with announcing the decision, fulfilling his role to notify the start date.  The SICB chairman indicated that he would follow due process.  Instead, a motion was presented at the SICB meeting to commence the crop on December twenty-eighth, ignoring the view of the mill and the three associations who had agreed to start crop on December fifteenth.  Government representatives who hold a voting majority on the SICB, voted to start on December twenty-eighth, against the will of the mill and a majority of cane farmers’ associations.  In instances such as this, where government dictates operational decisions to a private sector industry in which it has no commercial interest, corroborate B.S.I.’s rationale for its legal challenge to parts of the antiquated Sugar Act which allows this type of intervention”.