Strike averted in sugar industry
The looming crisis confronting the sugar industry has been averted, at least for the present, as cane farmers have agreed to begin deliveries to the factory. BSI will open its gates at 6:00 Tuesday morning and cane juice should begin to flow shortly afterward. The farmers had refused to deliver cane since Friday, claiming that the price of just over thirty-eight dollars per ton was too low to survive. They changed their minds when Belize Sugar Industries agreed to raise the price to forty dollars and thirty-three cents. But while the new price has been accepted, what is not clear is where the money will come from. When questioned this morning Minister of Sugar Industry Valdemar Castillo, said that details of that arrangement are yet to be worked out.
Valdemar Castillo, Minister of Sugar Industries
“BSI informed the cane farmers that payment for their cane would be something like thirty-eight dollars and one cent, that’s all the payment. But they usually give eighty-five percent for the first payment that would be about thirty-two dollars and something. The farmers are saying that they won’t be able to survive with thirty-two dollars because they need to their operational expenses, their bank payments and they have to live. So they said they would not start crop until something is done to adjust the first payment. What government through the Ministry of the Sugar Industries has done is to request BSI to start crop and as we go along we?re going to take a look at that adjustment. So what will happen in the meanwhile is that BSI will take the licking so to speak, and government will come in and see how they can co-operate with BSI. So the crop should start tomorrow.”
“Both BSI and the Cane Farmers Association are informing the cane farmers that the gates will be opened tomorrow morning at 6:00 and cane can start to be delivered and the crop will start.”
Ann-Marie Williams
?Will we see a rise in sugar prices from thirty-five cents per pound here?”
Valdemar Castillo
“Well I cannot say at this point. We need to raise the issue with the Cabinet. We have different ways of raising revenue, for example we have payment that both the farmers and BSI pay to the Belize Port Authority, about half a million dollars. If we could get them to cancel that or reduce it, because the industry is not using the port facilities, yet they’re paying. That’s one way where the money can to the industry.”
Ann-Marie Williams
?Have you decided on that??
Valdemar Castillo
?Yes. We have already written the Port Authority.?
While Castillo was vague, sources at BSI were less so. They claim that an arrangement was made under which government agreed that in the absence of other remedies the price of local sugar would be raised, thus providing the additional revenue for the higher cane prices. If approved by Cabinet the new retail prices would be forty-five cents per pound for plantation white sugar and thirty-nine cents for brown. These are respectively ten and fourteen cents higher than present levels, but still well below prices prevailing elsewhere in the region. Any rise in the price of local sugar would not become effective until the new stocks hit the shelves in mid January.
