Florida freeze expected to boost Belize citrus export prices

Still on the economy, the freeze has been bad news for the citrus industry in the US where temperatures dropped to as low as twenty-five degrees causing orange groves in Florida to freeze over the weekend. But if the adage rings true that when America sneezes we catch a cold, then the cold brought on by the freeze is actually good news for local growers because of the boost in export prices for citrus. When C.E.O. of the Citrus Growers Association appeared on Open Your Eyes this morning, he explained where the markets currently stand. Anderson also said that the C.G.A. will go to court to settle an ongoing dispute with the Barbados based Banks Holdings Limited, which now controls the industry through its subsidiary, Citrus Products of Belize Limited.

Henry Anderson, C.E.O., Citrus Growers Association
“As we speak right now, the markets have been going up. I think in August of last year for oranges for example, I think it was at sixty-four cents per pound solid. As of Friday, it was at a dollar fifty-four and we expect—a freeze event happened in Florida this weekend, so the prices are looking good. What we are saying here is that the way the investment agreement was done, CGA, as Mr. Jenkins motioned, gave up twelve million shares for four dollars and there was nothing between C.G.A. or I.C.L. and C.P.B.L. to make an adjustment for that. So here you have I.C.L. and C.G.A. holding the bag with AID and Social Security. You have essentially given up control of your company. C.G.A. owns precisely fifty-one percent of CPBL and has its right as a majority shareholder all the actions that have taken to prevent it from putting out those rights regardless of the emotions and the philosophies that are out there are wrong. Growers should be getting better prices and we need to clear all of this up. We are taking this to court, the government is involved in terms of looking at the legislation and we would only hope that government looks at this for what it is and in its deliberations, ensure they have a system in place that takes care of all the growers; large and small because citrus—we didn’t talk about this—but what he needs to know is that what may very well happen here if things are left unchecked is that the medium and small growers will whittle their way out of the industry over a few years and we’ll be left with maybe ten fifteen big ones.”