B.S.I Announces Start of Sugar Crop Following Delay

Following a delay of almost two weeks, the Belize Sugar Industries Limited has announced the start of the 2023-2024 sugar crop on December twenty-eighth. B.S.I. says that the majority of stakeholders in the sugar industry had agreed to start this month and this was announced by the Sugar Industry Control Board B.S.I. issued a press release today in which it states that while it is still waiting to sign a commercial agreement with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, there is in place an open agreement that does not require any signature between them, just the delivery of cane. This open agreement for B.S.C.F.A. members will apply only to the harvest season commencing this month and ending in the summer of 2024, according to the B.S.I. release. It says that if there’s a commercial agreement between them during the crop season, that newly signed agreement will immediately supersede the terms of this open agreement and will govern the delivery of sugar cane to B.S.I. for the sugar crop. The factory says that this temporary open agreement is only intended to be a short-term solution to facilitate the smooth start of the 2023-24 crop. The mill at Tower Hill has been ready to receive cane from all farmers, including members of the B.S.C.F.A. for the past two weeks. The other cane farmers associations have signed agreements with B.S.I. and are covered under their respective commercial agreements.