Millions of Fair Trade dollars disputed at cane farmers meeting

The Sugar Industry is facing another battle tonight. The latest controversy is about Fair Trade, an international movement which helps producers in developing countries to improve their crop and social life by guaranteeing a “fair price” to farmers. The sugar industry received Fair Trade status on February twenty-first, 2008 and millions were to be injected into the industry. Tate and Lyle devised a development program that was presented to the farmers by their association’s C.E.O., Carlos Magana on Sunday. Many farmers expressed dissatisfaction but the project was still approved. News Five’s Jose Sanchez spoke to some of the farmers who felt the wool was pulled over their eyes Sunday’s meeting.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The Belize Cane Farmers Association held a meeting for its members on Sunday at La Escuela Secundaria de Mexico located in San Roman Village. Top of the agenda is the issue of millions of dollars funnelled through Fair Trade of Europe to improve the industry and the lives of the six thousand plus cane farmers in the northern districts.

Wilfredo Magana, Progresso Branch, Bze Sugar Cane Farmers Assn
“This came out from Fair Trade. Fair Trade letter and it says Tate and Lyle’s fair trade commitment is sweet news for six thousand cane farmers in Belize.”

Jose Sanchez
“Is it sweet?”

Wilfredo Magana
“Like chicken; sweet and sour.”

But the outcome of the meeting has left a sour taste for many of the farmers who attended. Jose Mai said that the Fair Trade agreement should have been good news for the farmers.

Jose Mai, San Lazaro Branch, Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Assn
“Belize obtained a Fair Trade certification one year and a half ago and as such, the cane farmers would have obtained premiums to the tune of I think sixty million dollars over five years based on sugar sales. Last year was the first year that Belize obtained seven point six million dollars fair trade premiums. Yesterday, essentially, was to either approve or disapprove a proposal tabled by Tate and Lyle and Fair Trade to the cane farmers. Essentially, the meeting was to either decide yes, we are going to accept the proposal or no, we are not going to accept the proposal. That was the essence of the meeting yesterday.”

But these cane farmers have grown disgruntled with the handling of the meeting, to which three hundred farmers were invited. According to Willie Magana, approximately one thousand persons attended the meeting.

Wilfredo Magana
“The meeting was attended by over a thousand members and what the Association did—because dehn tricky—what they did is that they went from village to village campaigning to five percent for every branch members.”

The association only needed five percent approval to get the Quality Improvement Program approved. Diodoro Novelo said that small percentage caused a lot of problems at Sunday’s meeting.

Diodoro Novelo, Yo Creek Branch, Belize Sugar Cane Farmer Assn
“When the time of the election came, the gathering, the masses got out and went to look for lunch at that time they called for elections. I noticed that people that were not from the branch voted once and they voted again for their branch. So that is two times that person voted and I could name the people’s names. We noticed that Mr. Magana had already conceded defeat because the way he gone up and expressed himself, saying that he in the masses can bring in eighteen million dollars to Belize. So I got up and told the man nobody can bring eighteen million dollars to Belize. So why are you that? From there, when the figures came, boom! To me, I thought Mr. Magana was defeated already but all of a sudden we noticed the figures went in their favour. To me, the figures were cooked in their favour. Everything was pre-fabricated, everything was done the way they moulded the meeting to go on.”

Wilfredo Magana
“There was no official body identifying if this particular person that raise ih hand came from Orange Walk or Progresso was called, come from Progresso Branch.”

Jose Sanchez
“Is that in the standing orders, to have people identified for voting?”

Wilfred Magana
“Well, they created their own places of voting.”

Jose Sanchez
“Could some people just raise their hand for each time they call a different branch?”

Wilfred Magana
“I tell wah man weh mi di raise ih hand fi mek ih bring it down because he was not from my village and he bring down ih hand.”

Jose Sanchez
“Do you hold Mr. Magana personally responsible for how this ended?”

Diodoro Novelo
“Yes, because it was precooked. They expected from the very inception of this QIP program, that they would accept it because they had already written and acceptance to Tate and Lyle saying that they are willing to accept and they will apply that to the farmers in favour of QIP.”

Jose Sanchez
“And the association is broke.”

Diodoro Novelo
“Association is broke. Government give them hundred and twenty thousand, they borrowed I don’t know how much they borrowed from the credit union in Corozal. If these people get a million dollars, they’ll spend it again. Twenty percent is too much of a high percentage of the money coming to Belize in the form of help for the cane farmers. And cane farmers of the first year will only benefit one point five million dollars whereas only twenty people Mr. Magana included will benefit of one point two million dollars. You see the—to me it’s not fair.”

Wilfred Magana
“It is important that the Ministry of the industry has its representative there. Maybe the minister should ah mi tek wah lee ride and look at the process or maybe they were not invited. But I know there was a regulator like the board of representatives but they need to look into these kind of things here because we cannot continue to work under these kind of corrupt system and once the money is mishandled and misspent, we go back to want to forget what happened last time and thing put in new people to do the same thing over and over.”

The cane farmers are calling for their own meeting tomorrow morning in Orange Walk, where they will discuss what will be their plan of action. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.

Carlos Magana was busy in a meeting at the Corozal office of the Belize Cane Farmers Association. He says that enough votes were cast for approval of the Quality Improvement Program.