Go to any corner store and the shelf price of brown sugar is between 49 and 75 cents per pound. But, the controlled retail price is only 39 cents per pound - that other 36 cents is all just your basic 95% merchant's markup.
But now the sugar industry is saying that it can't sell brown sugar for 39 cents anymore. Two letters - one from a pari of Farmer Associations and the other from ASR/BSI both implore the Prime Minister to raise the domestic price of brown sugar. ASR/BSI wants it at about 64 cents per pound, while the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association and the Progressive Sugar Cane Producers Association want it at 75 cents per pound.
They both point out that the controlled price of a pound of brown sugar has not increased since 2001. BSI says that during the intervening 22 years, average inflation in Belize has risen by over 35%, with transport costs in particular being over 60% higher.
ASR/BSI also adds that it sells brown sugar to CARICOM for 64 cents per pound and that when Belzieqna down sugar is smuggled to Mexico and Guatemala, it sells for about a dollar per pound.
ASR/BSI calls on government to "set a realistic price for brown sugar in Belize."
