New special general meeting called in citrus controversy
For months, the Belizean citrus industry has been walking a minefield of controversy and this weekend proved to be one more misstep. Saturday’s special general meeting featured yet another contentious face off between management and growers regarding the conclusion of the share sale between Citrus Products of Belize Limited and Eastern Caribbean investors, Banks Holdings. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This week officials from the Citrus Growers Association are reviewing the names of a list of fifteen growers that have called for yet another special general meeting on February third.
Bridget Cullerton, C.E.O., C.G.A.
“We did, on the eighteenth of January receive another petition from a set of growers most names that were on the previous petition for another special general meeting. Right now we are in the process that we go through to check to make sure they are members of the association and these were their signatures and it is just like we do every time.”
Janelle Chanona
“What are the agenda topics for that new meeting?”
Bridget Cullerton
“I’d rather not say until we are sure we do have a petition in hand.”
Denzil Jenkins
“What is on the agenda is one to remove all the directors of the C.G.A. who either signed the investment agreement or supported the investment agreement.”
According to industry stalwart and staunch opponent of the investment agreement, Denzil Jenkins, the actions of board of management have been their undoing.
Denzil Jenkins
“The meeting that was held on Saturday twentieth, the special meeting, called by the management of the C.G.A. clearly indicated by overwhelming expressions of the growers that they have no confidence in the present management committee of the C.G.A. If something is wrong, it has to be corrected … how do you correct it? You don’t correct it by being silent. If people are deliberating ignoring and disrespecting the members, the owners will people expect that the growers are going to silent? So this is it, people are standing up for what is right. It is not something that is frivolous; people have tried to relegate this issue to personalities. That is a lot of nonsense; it is sidetracking from the issues and you will notice that some of the pronouncements that are made are not addressing issues at all.”
Janelle Chanona
“Do you feel it’s because you are involved and everybody knows there is no love lost between you and Mr. Bowman. Do you think it’s who the messenger is rather than what the message is?”
Denzil Jenkins
“People like to mention about there is no love lost between Mr. Bowman and myself, if that is from Mr. Bowman’s side so be it. I have no control over how Mr. Bowman thinks and how he acts. But I know about myself and there is no business of personality. There is nothing about disliking Mr. Bowman. What I will say very clearly and emphatically is that I dislike what Mr. Bowman does and stands for in connection with his position as a director of the C.G.A. That is representing the best interest of citrus growers that is my position.”
Today Jenkins says that the February third AGM will also include a second motion for the complete reversal of the investment agreement, despite the legal and financial damages that are sure to follow.
Denzil Jenkins
“If there is a penalty to be paid to set aside the agreement at this stage it can be easily shown that it is going to be far less than what we are going to lose, not in the long term but in the very short term. I contend that Banks would have known when they had this agreement finalized that the growers had passed the resolution as was declared saying that that agreement was not to be finalized except all those recommendations were met.”
Henry Canton (FILE October 2006)
“What I would do now in hind sight is—because there is no hidden agendas I would have been a little more public with the issues. But there are certain confidential issues that would have not been able to disclose because in negotiating between partners your partner ties you, or the person who is coming to invest ties you, to certain confidentialities on their part. But yes I would do different; I would try to have made it more public.”
C.E.O. Henry Canton reiterated his position in October 2006 but Jenkins says Canton’s actions and that of the management committee have not changed the perception that something sinister is afoot.
Denzil Jenkins
“It is terrible, the initial agreement and the people who signed that agreement, not being foolish, there has be a hidden agenda. Something has to be hidden somewhere where somebody is getting benefit.”
On Saturday C.E.O. Bridget Cullerton admitted that the supplementary agreement, which would include the Committee of Five’s recommendations and other amendments, is still unsigned … but not for long.
Bridget Cullerton
“Correct. The agreement itself, the investors as I understand it, personally wanted to come to Belize so they could be sharing publicly with our growers and the populace on a whole. So they are coming in today, Monday, and we will be doing tomorrow morning the signing, however, there was a letter and this seemed to have been a bit of controversy, there was a letter that was sent some time ago where they had signed to say that they did agree with all the changes that the Committee of Five made in the investment agreement; in the supplemental one that was done and that was signed. But it appeared in the meeting as if the members of the Committee of Five who were there and spoke had not seen that particular letter. So that seemed to be a bit of controversy there.”
But it’s those “bits of controversy”, a lack of transparency and poor communication between the managers and growers that’s bound to add up to more internal problems in the future for the Belizean citrus industry.
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
In related news, growers are also responding negatively to a proposal by C.P.B.L. to set the floor price of oranges at six dollars and fifty cents per box even though the average rate for the past twenty years has been a price of eight dollars.
