Another fractious citrus meeting anticipated Saturday

Don’t look now but one of our most newsworthy yet depressing regular news events will be taking place on Saturday. That’s right, yet another fractious meeting of the Citrus Growers Association. Tomorrow’s gathering figures to be no less controversial than those in the recent past, the only difference being that the faction that used to be out of power is now in power–and will most like be on the receiving end of the same venomous criticism that they used to dish out.

Among the key points to be debated are outstanding legal issues, including who, if anyone, needs to step down from the recently elected board of management and what to do about a lawsuit filed by dissident growers that seeks to have the C.G.A.’s very existence declared illegal. Add to that mix the fact that a number of major producers have already resigned their membership and you have a recipe for a complete political meltdown in Belize’s most prosperous industry.

And of course we can=t forget the issue of the forty-seven percent purchase of the Association owned citrus company by Caribbean investors that sparked the whole controversy in the first place. Industry sources say that despite last month’s anti-investment victory, the C.G.A. management committee remains far from unanimous on the question.

The fun starts at nine-thirty at the C.G.A. compound and members are asked to please bring the annual reports that were handed out at the original aborted A.G.M. as there are no more left to distribute. Even a brief glance at the figures contained in the over two hundred page booklet will show that business in the citrus belt has never been better.