At two-thirty today, officials from A.S.R. and B.S.I. met with Prime Minister Dean Barrow and Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega at the PM’s office at Whitfield Tower in Belize City. The meeting was called so Prime Minister Dean Barrow could convey the B.S.C.F.A.’s last position to the company. That position is a decidedly more flexible […]
Tonight, the only news in the ongoing sugar cane crisis is that there is no news. Late this evening News Five spoke to an official of the BSCFA who told us that there has been no word back from government yet. Prime Minister Dean Barrow left Monday’s meeting with a commitment to meet with ASR/B.S.I., […]
On Friday, A.S.R./B.S.I. rejected the B.S.C.F.A.’s proposals on the three points which sit on the negotiating table like ten thousand pound gorillas. One is the timeframe of the agreement which would govern the relationship between farmers and factory. The second is the ownership of the cane, and the third is the formula for the payment […]
The sugar-cane crop season 2014-2015 will not start on December eighth. And when, or if it will start, is anybody’s guess. On Wednesday the BSCFA presented proposals to the BSI on three main points of contention. And at around four fifteen today, via letter, the BSI rejected those proposals and, we are told, issued modified […]
After a long period of hostilities from afar, A.S.R./B.S.I. and the B.S.C.F.A. are back at the negotiating table. Along with representatives of the Sugar Industry Control Board, both parties met in Orange Walk today in an attempt to mend fences and start the crop. The meeting in itself was progress of sorts, but the truth […]
Since the restructuring of Citrus Products of Belize Limited in April, news from Pomona Valley has been rather far and few. That’s not to say however, that there isn’t much happening within the industry. While it may have flown under the radar a few weeks ago, the tides have turned in the once contentious relationship […]
As far as progress concerning the state of affairs of CPBL, audits of the company, which had been stalled indefinitely, are being completed for 2013 and 2014. The delay subsequently affected an extension of CPBL’s loan facility with First Caribbean Bank. Doug Singh, Chairman, C.P.B.L. “There’s been far better relationship between the shareholders and I […]
Up north… Approximately one thousand cane-farmers from Orange Walk and Corozal attended the Annual General Meeting of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, held on Sunday in San Roman, Corozal. All association matters, including financial reports, complaints and elections are dealt with at AGM, but in this case, the crisis in the industry is priority. […]
While BGYEA has been ordered to go back to the negotiating table, BSCFA in the north is also awaiting word to start negotiations. But up to news time, there’s been no communication from B.S.I. or from the government on the start of negotiations. That’s the bottom line, but in the meantime there is a lot […]
Is there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel where the sugar industry is concerned? It appears that way, following a meeting between representatives of the B.S.C.F.A., the S.I.C.B., the Ministry of Agriculture and Prime Minister Dean Barrow this morning. As is the case after these meetings in a volatile, dynamic and […]
On November fifteenth, cane farmers from eighteen branches of the B.S.C.F.A. met and issued an ultimatum to the Sugar Industry Control Board. In a nutshell, the farmers had two requests – one, that they recruit an independent expert to evaluate the proposals for bagasse payment and secondly, that they push the idea of an interim […]
Today is Friday, the deadline given to the Sugar Industry Control Board to call a meeting in an attempt to break the impasse between the BSCFA and BSI/ASR. But tonight we can report that the deadline has been extended to next week Tuesday, the twenty-fifth. The SICB was not able to meet before then, and […]
Cane-farmers from the Orange Walk and Corozal districts have given the Sugar Industry Control Board one week to break the impasse between BSI/ASR and the BSCFA. If that does not happen, they will stage a mass protest. That unanimous decision was taken at a general assembly meeting held on Saturday at the Escuela Secundaria Tecnica […]
Faced with an ultimatum from the farmers, SICB Chairman Gabriel Martinez promised to ‘try his best’ to call a meeting before November twenty-fifth to facilitate a way forward. It’s a tough position for the regulatory body because strictly speaking it is a commercial agreement between two parties. Because of the no compromise stance taken by […]
It’ll be an interesting week ahead. The farmers have stood strong, called out SICB and by extension GOB. The Prime Minister went on record first to offer to pay for an independent expert if the BSCFA wanted one. They did, and made the request in writing, after which the PM went on record again to […]
Much as it did last year, a sense of unease and hostility pervades the sugar-cane industry and the 2014-2015 crop season, scheduled to start within a month. On Monday, ASR-owned B.S.I. held a press conference to announce that since no agreement could be reached, it had decided to bypass the B.S.C.F.A. and attempt to sign […]
It is not far-fetched to speculate that the mandate from the farmers may include agitation of some form, leading up to industrial action. The industry is volatile, the labour intensive, and the farmers passionate about the lifeblood of the north. At the start of the last crop, BSI gave an undertaking in good faith to […]
Even as we left Orange Walk following that press conference at the B.S.C.F.A., News Five received word that unknown persons had torched cane-fields in Libertad owned by B.S.I. We were unable to get comment from factory representatives, but reliable sources tell us that a total of nine acres of mature cane, approximately three hundred and […]
While industrial action is contemplated in the north, the People’s United Party is tonight castigating the Barrow administration for dragging its feet on one of the major industries and the lifeblood of the north. According to Party Leader Francis Fonseca, the United Democratic Party government has been slow to intercede in the ongoing dispute. Fonseca […]
Earlier in our newscast, the B.S.C.F.A. spoke about an agreement which B.S.I. is trying to sell to farmers. There are five critical points in that agreement which has raised the ire of the B.S.C.F.A. and which the Association refuses to accept. Primary among those is an assertion by B.S.I. that once the cane is delivered […]
The second point of contention in the new agreement is of course one that has dominated the sugar industry scene for the past year – payment for bagasse. In B.S.I.’s proposal, there is no mention of bagasse…just fibre, and a formula which the factory proposes to use to pay farmers for the fibre taken from […]
There is a crisis of significant proportions brewing in the sugar-cane industry, lifeblood of the north and one of the country’s largest export-earners. A.S.R.-owned B.S.I. on Monday announced that following a failure to come to terms, it would be bypassing the B.S.C.F.A. completely. The company has now initiated discussions with the leaders of the three […]
Even as B.S.I. was trying to convince farmers to jump the B.S.C.F.A. ship, that body was holding emergency meetings with the eighteen directors of the different branches. Today’s round of meeting ended at just after midday and the media was on hand to get a preliminary response from the B.S.C.F.A. reps. It was a little […]
The People’s United Party has issued a statement in respect of the developments in the sugar industry. The party says the B.S.I./A.S.R. decision to bypass the B.S.C.F.A. is unprecedented and does not augur well for the viability of the industry. The opposition also notes that there is an absence of participation by the government. In […]
The hostilities between Belize Sugar Industry and the Belize Sugar Cane farmers Association will no doubt be ratcheted up a significant notch today after an unexpected announcement by the factory. Starting immediately, B.S.I. will bypass the B.S.C.F.A. and will attempt to deal directly with the farmers in the delivery and milling of cane. It’s an […]
