On Friday we showed you the uneasy truce which Prime John Briceno brokered in the sugar industry, so that the stand-off between the millers and the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association could end.
For a little over 3 days, BSCFA farmers had staged a protest against the millers blocking the entrance to the Tower Hill factory. The trucks were moved on Friday and the factory gates opened today, but the grinding season is now behind by a full 14 days.
All those hours of non-productivity are concerning for the entire industry since there is a lot of cane in fields, which represents the possibility of lost earnings.
So, there's urgency to start deliveries, and that's why news of a delay from the millers this weekend riled up some farmers.
This weekend, representatives of the mill sent out a group message to the industry saying that its boiler malfunctioned yesterday. Repairs were immediately commenced, but the expected start time was moved back by a day.
However, because tensions are still high, some farmers interpreted this as a punitive tactic, which they claim was used in the past by the millers to provoke and punish them.
On the other hand, our newsroom has learned about another incident that the millers suspect is an attempt of sabotage when the factory began accepting cane deliveries at around 10 a.m.
But after one of the first trucks arrived this morning, this massive rock was discovered in the dumping table by one of the mill's employees. If the rock hadn't been spotted, it would have damaged the factory's equipment. And, due to the size of the rock, staffers aren't prepared to accept at face value that this is a simple accident.
Apart from the unease due to last week's protest, insiders tell us that the next big disagreement in the industry will focus on the quality of the sugar cane being delivered. As we told you, all those tonnes of cane that sat in those trucks for about 3 days will have decreased quality. Each truck can carry about 16 to 18 tonnes, and it was estimated that around 20 trucks were used to set up the blockade.
This evening, we contacted Marcos Osorio, the Chairman of the Sugar Industries Control Board, for comment on that issue of cane quality.
Via text, he told us quote, "What is of paramount importance at the time is to get the crop going, save what can be saved at this time, and move forward… We also hope that the mill does not have any further issues, or at least [anything] that is major so that we can get all the old cane milled in the next 2 to 3 days..."
We also asked him about the rock found in the delivery of sugar cane today, and he said that it's too early to determine whether or not it was a deliberate act of sabotage against the mill. The matter will be investigated.
