Citrus growers quarrel over sale of company

With world prices for orange and grapefruit rising dramatically, Belize’s Citrus Industry is in the best shape in over a decade. But despite the economic optimism, controversy is once again spreading rapidly through the Stann Creek Valley. This time the contention surrounds the imminent sale of minority shares in the processing company, Citrus Products of Belize Limited. In a press release issued by the Citrus Growers Association, which owns the company, a special general meeting will be held on Saturday, September sixteenth, to disclose the details of a contract signed between the board of directors and investors from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. According to C.G.A.’s chief executive officer, Bridget Cullerton, in February the growers gave the board a mandate to research, negotiate and finalise an agreement with prospective investors in the Belizean citrus industry. Since then, the board has signed a letter of agreement and confidentiality statement which Cullerton says prevents her from discussing the details of the deal. But tonight, sources tell News Five that only certain members of the board signed those documents and that in no way did the growers give the directors such broad dealmaking powers. Those sentiments have garnered a following and at the special general meeting next week, a motion for a vote of no confidence will be tabled against the committee of management. There is also a proposition for the floor to appoint three members of the association who would approve, in writing, all agreements between C.G.A. and other companies. But even if approved, that committee would presumably handle future contracts, not necessarily the one at issue today. We understand that C.G.A.’s attorney Rodwell Williams will be on hand during the special general meeting to clarify that position. In 2002, the Citrus Growers Association purchased a ninety-seven percent interest in the company, formerly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation, with a number of growers buying the remaining three percent stake. The current deal calls for the purchase of forty-seven percent by the Caribbean investors but Cullerton claims that the contract is worded so that the Association will always be majority shareholders. The special general meeting is scheduled to start at nine thirty next Saturday at the ITVET compound at mile nine on the Stann Creek Valley Road.