And for Santander - this regulatory dispute - has been just a small part of the leaning curve for them doing business in Belize.
The Guatemalan investors came here about 7 years ago - and ran into strong headwinds of local resistance. They fought through to realise their investment vision, but today they said it hasn't been easy, or profitable:
Jules Vasquez- Reporter
"You know it is not always easy doing business in Belize, to get permits all this type of thing. If you had to Quintessentialize your experience, I know you had a very rocky start, a very controversial start but if you would just speak about the past six years, if I am right, that you all have been doing a harvest, how has your experience been? How has your rate of return on investment been? And if you knew then what you know now, would you do it again?"
Jose Rodriguez- CEO, Santander
"Very good question. I am gonna answer it like this. I came to Belize with a lot of will to work and to do things and with a lot of money. I am left with the will. Other than that we have invested everything that we have to get this production and this investment to be successful. We have had difficult years and we haven't reached the point to have a profit yet but we are very close to achieving it thanks to the hard-working team that we have formed here in Belize."
David Rodriguez- CFO, Santander
"The good news is that we have been serving our debt. Mainly the Belizean banks have most of our debt. We have been serving our debt and we have reduced our debt since we started around 10% and we have been paying on time our capital payments and our interest payments. The good news is that the company this year is entering the first year of achieving its financial independence and stability and it is going to allow the future to build and start building profit for the sponsors that have been supporting the company since the beginning."
Jose Rodriguez- CEO, Santander
"Here in Belize the investments they cost more than what you expect. You make some numbers at the beginning and at the end of the day or the year it will cost more than what you plan. One is that extra cost that we encountered here. The other thing is the production levels. The production levels that we expected were higher than what we found. I think we are going to get them over the years. The other thing was that most of the areas that we thought were ready to plant around the sugar mill are under another crop and we have to start doing some other things in order to get the farmers to plant cane and to decide to change the traditional crop that they were using. Still, we are working on that. But we are basically two years than what we planned at the beginning."
David Rodriguez- CFO, Santander
"So I think the experience has been amazing. We have a lot of stories of success from our employees and our team that makes you say it is worth it to be here."
Santander says it provides 750 jobs.
