Last night, we told you about the delays at the start of the next sugar crop season. The millers, BSI/ASR insist that since yesterday they've been ready to accept the first cane deliveries, and persistent reports to 7news are that all the associations, except the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, are ready to start the harvest. But, because the Sugar Industries Control Board hasn't gazetted that start date, nobody can legally begin those cane deliveries.
Today, BSI/ASR sent out a press release saying, quote, "The mill is ready to commence the 2022/23 sugar crop. The crop is presently on hold pending agreement of a start date by the Sugar Industry Control Board. The Board is appointed by the Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise. The reason stated by the SICB Chairman for the delay is the lack of a commercial agreement between BSI and BSCFA, even though three other cane farmer associations, representing around 50% of the sugar cane to be milled, have agreements to deliver their cane, are prepared to do so and are presently unable to execute that legal right as a result of the SICB's failure to designate a start date." End quote.
The company goes on to make the point that every day that passes without deliveries is a lost opportunity for the industry and the national economy.
So what does the BSCFA have to say?
Today, our colleagues from CTV3 News got a chance to speak with Fred Ortega, the Chairman of the BSCFA's Committee of Management.
Here's a snippet of their conversation in Spanish, with English translations:
Fred Ortega, Chairman of the BSCFA Committee of Management
"We didn't expect that they would put out a release and we see once again the dirty game they are playing because this that they took out in the document isn't anything we discussed during the mediation that we had. So in reality we didn't think that this would have happened, we are waiting for our meeting to present the outcome to our cane farmers in terms of where we got to in the mediation so this information that BSI took out, really we are not in agreement with it because it wasn't something that we had during the mediation."
