And while that Party Boat was stopped at the pier, there's no stopping the ASR/BSI barges from going to the Big Creek Port in Stann Creek.
That falls within the purview of the Minister of Logistics - and the Big Creek Port is also in his constituency of Stann Creek West.
Today, our Sunup crew asked him about the loss of earnings that the stevedores of Belize City's Southside will have to deal with, now that bulk exports of raw sugar will be shifted from the Port of Belize to the Port of Big Creek.
He said that stevedore's offloading practices at PBL are archaic and that the government couldn't allow stevedores to continually hold farmers hostage.
Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics and Transport
"The Port of Belize in receivership are there in 12 years and absolutely no improvement have been done to the Port of Belize since then and so just to offload sugar is very archaic and so it requires a huge amount of stevedores to offload a sugar boat and what they do and it is their rights, whenever there is a dispute then they use the sugar barge or the boat to say you know what I'm going to held back on this boat, because I have a dispute and that boat need to leave harbor and unfortunately its not the Port of Belize takes on the expenses when the boat is delayed, it is ASR and the sugarcane farmers. Because there is an arrangement with ASR and the sugarcane farmers that the company bear some of the cost of the expenses and the farmers bear some of the costs. The farmers actually bear 65% of the cost. So, for every time a ship delays it affects the farmers. BSI agree that for this crop year which should started in November 2021, they are going to take their bulk sugar to Independence, but the last 2 shipments that they had there some difficulties because the stevedores decide that they are going to hold back this ship. That ship was there for about 18 days. The stevedores were bargaining with the Port of Belize and the only way they could bargain was to hold back this sugar ship."
Host 1
"This is whole other perspective that we are getting here, because from what I am understanding Minister is that it's not government as some people would say that moving the sugar down south, it's an actual agreement between the ASR and the sugarcane farmers to move it down to Big Creek due to problems with Port of Belize, not so much the stevedores, but the stevedores bargaining with the Port of Belize and actually holding ships from exporting."
Host 2
"And I remember that when they were on the couch, they were speaking about the fact that they had to do that because they were not getting any kind of feedback from the government. They had been writing letters and nobody was giving them any update and so they felt that because of holding back the ships, that that's the only way they could evoke a response. That was what was told to us on the couch when they were here."
Hon. Rodwell Ferguson
"That is quite likely. I mean as a people they have the right to do to get attention and actually when there is a labor dispute, it's the ministry of labor. I come in as the minister responsible for ports and so while that ship was in harbor for 18 days, they ran up a bill like two hundred plus US dollars just to be in harbor and so then the sugar industry is saying it will be another expense to try to figure a way forward and so they move the ship in the middle of the shipment to Big Creek, as well by itself caused a havoc because the stevedores are saying they are going to lose their revenues. But what BSI and ASR are saying is that they do two types of shipment, they do bulk sugar and they do bag sugar. It's easier to offload the bag sugar at the Port of Belize, so they won't take the bag sugar to Big Creek."
