Butane suppliers and importers across the country ended their strike this morning. They had been closed since the end of business on Thursday and in the intervening 96 hours, the country was gripped by butane shortages. Nowhere were the complaints and calls greater than at Belize Western Energy. That company controls about two-thirds of the market and today general manager Jose Mai told us what it was like for those days of striking.
Jose Mai,
“It’s been very hectic. We have orders in fact from Friday of last that has been accumulating over time, over the weekend, and so today was an early day for all of us. From last night we started mobilizing and started cranking up operations.”
Jules Vasquez,
Who did you find that on those days was most desperate for butane?
Jose Mai,
“A couple of the big restaurants in town, one major hotel, and the domestic consumers, housewives who would call us and really tend to be the more angry ones.”
Jules Vasquez,
Was it all worth it?
Jose Mai,
“Yes when you consider the entire package. Pricing was the most important item on the table. We did not get what we wanted which was the $129 but we did arrive at a good compromise with the government, at a fair one, and taking into consideration both the consumer, the importers, and GOB. We did not want a band-aid solution, we wanted something long term that we can depend on and that really considers or takes into account these hikes in the international prices. We realize that instead of a band-aid solution, the long term outlook that we had to have was to let’s look at the mechanism, let’s not look at a price adjustment. Let’s look at the entire mechanism and see what is in there that we can do to accommodate future hikes in prices.”
Jules Vasquez,
We won’t be facing another butane strike in December or in January as world acquisition prices continue to climb?
Jose Mai,
“Well that depends Jules because remember what we did yesterday, we arrived at a compromise with the government. We negotiated and we agreed on something. That something is that we would be looking at the mechanism in such a way that it will favor by far the consumer and then it will also accommodate the importers.”
Jules Vasquez,
Do you have a warning to give them now so that when the price continues to climb, nobody is vexed and can’t say they weren’t forewarned?
Jose Mai,
“Well we all know that prices keep rising on a daily basis.”
Between mini-plants, distribution sites and full plants, Western Energy controls 29 butane outlets.
