Finally tonight, there is some good news for the sugar industry. Government has finally received the waivers from BSI and will begin to disburse the 10 million dollar loan starting tomorrow.
That means 3.2 million dollars will be released tomorrow - and that should be passed on directly to cane farmers to met the third payment that has been outstanding for four weeks now.
The remaining 6.8 million will be disbursed over the next two weeks.
The government rescue loan was approved by the house of Representatives on November 25th., but it could not be disbursed until waivers were received from BSI's foreign bankers - which are spread across as many as five banking institutions. So with farmers now receiving their long delayed third payment - the question is how soon can the season start? It was set for December 13th but with the delays in disbursement - that date will probably have to be pushed back again…
