Lotta Red Tape Created by New Sugar Regulation

Currently, ninety percent of sugar produced at the mills is exported, and only ten percent is consumed locally. It’s an attempt to force B.S.I. to pay B.S.C.F.A. for Fairtrade premium. The miller will now face a series of red tape, including having to apply annually for a license and then applying for permits for every export. This is being applied only to sugar and not other agricultural exports. Finance Director Shawn Chavarria says it is anti-business.

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.

Shawn Chavarria

“It definitely adds significant lay of burden, it is anti-business. You would expect that sugar being one of the largest agricultural experts and a key income earner for the country you would want to make the process of exporting sugar easier and not more burdensome. In fact, the opposite is happening. We don’t see this for bananas, we don’t see this for livestock; we don’t see this for citrus. I understand for citrus fruit, you need to apply for an export permit, but certainly not a license to do so. And so, in our view, it really seems to be one that is targeted and it doesn’t send a right signal from an investment standpoint. Under the supplies control act, there is a handful of products that requires the company to apply for an export permit. Sugar is one of them, you have certain fisheries product, certain hardwoods, I understand some beans and I believe citrus fruits. It is limited to those products. And as we have tried to point out in our view, even that is not necessary because there is no food security issue with sugar. There is enough sugar in the country of Belize; only ten percent of what we produce is consumed locally and therefore there doesn’t need to be any restrictions or the need to apply for export permits. But they have said that that needs to continue, we need to provide contracts now to satisfy the need to get those permits and then in addition to that, we have to be licensed to be an exporter or sugar, which is a new requirement and there are all these stipulations that are now in place for us to be approved. And even there are some clauses in the legislation where any fault could be found with us to give the minister power to remove the license and put us in a situation where we are not able to export our product. Even beyond that, the level of ministerial overreach, if the minister was not a member of the B.S.C.F.A., we would still take issue with it because the mere fact that you have to go to the minister and apply for a license and there are all these conditions that you have to meet in order to obtain a license, it just seems very unnecessary and it seems like I said overreach. And so even if the minister was not a member of the B.S.C.F.A., we would still have a major issue with it.”