UCFA Head Says B.S.C.F.A. Survival Uncertain

Wilfredo Magaña

Those amendments would probably not have come to pass without a legal claim by cane-farmer Wilfredo Magana way back in 2010. He and others petitioned the court to open up the industry and allow other associations to form and deliver cane to the factory. Magana was also on hand today for what he says is a momentous occasion which will wield a tremendous positive impact on the industry. Where the B.S.C.F.A. is concerned, though, Magana isn’t certain that organization will survive too far into the future.

Wilfredo Magaña, United Cane Farmers Association

“My honest prediction of their survival would be that they ned to do a forensic audit report on the B.S.C.F.A.—I think from 2008—from when the Fairtrade premium because it is over fifty million dollars that has passed through their hands. If they could do a forensic audit report and on those report, the people who get identified to be misusing these funds…if they can bring these people to justice to give it some type of encouragement for the people to say we have a reason to stay there. If they can do that, they can survive. But if they continue with the system that they are using now, I think that very pretty soon and you might be able to see this next year…in terms of people having an opportunity to join these associations already formed. So unless to me they do that…very total forensic audit of what has been breaking them down, I think their survival looks very slim in the future.”

Magana’s United Cane Farmers Association has been amalgamated into the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association, and deliver to the factory under that name.