Growers buy Del Oro by assuming company’s debt

On Sunday, members of the Belize Citrus Growers Association were given the details of the deal which saw the C.G.A. buy out the nation’s sole fruit processor, Del Oro. It turns out that after a year of negotiations the growers achieved what appears to be a first class bargain, paying two U.S. dollars–that’s right, T-W-O–plus assuming the company’s considerable debt of eighteen point nine million U.S. dollars. While that debt may loom large, the fact is that Britain’s Commonwealth Development Corporation paid forty million U.S. when it bought the old Citrus Company of Belize and Belize Food Products in the late 1990’s and over the next four years put another twenty million into what became Del Oro. That name will remain for the next six months, while former citrus minister Henry Canton is busy getting the operation in shape for the new season. And that season promises to be the best in many years as higher world prices promise growers an increase of around a dollar a box for both orange and grapefruit. One immediate change the new owners are planning to introduce is to buy fruit on a pound solid basis, which would pay growers for the quality, as opposed to quantity, of their juice. To ensure that growers get paid accurately, insiders say there will be a monitoring committee plus tamper proof machinery that will sample each load. The C.G.A now owns ninety-nine percent of the company, and while they promise to maintain at least fifty-one percent, there are plans to offer the remaining shares to interested members through a payment scheme which is yet to be finalized.