Over the weekend, a letter was leaked to 7News from an organization named FLOCERT to ASR/BSI. You may not have heard of FLOCERT - but that's the independent certification body that audits and certifies all actors within the FAIRTRADE certification system. And as you may know, Fairtrade gives funds to developing countries who grow certain crops. Those funds are called "a social premium" to benefit the community through schools, roads, health clinics, and more.
So, because money is involved, FAIRTRADE certification is a big deal, so when FLOCERT posts on its website that ASR/BSI is suspended and, quote, "Belize Sugar Industries Limited cannot sign Fairtrade contracts with new trading partners, nor advertise or make any reference to maintaining a valid Fairtrade certification," it's huge news in the north.
Now, for its part, ASR/BSI is saying that it's really just a mistake over a technical issue, one that they are working to resolved rapidly. A company rep today told us on the phone that it's a documentation problem which they expect to have resolved by next week.
They stress that the de-certification doesn't affect any cane supplier that they have contracts with.
And while the letter we received with the news of the suspension comes out of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association - which, you might think would revel in any embarrassment that ASR/BSI is forced to endure, today, the Chairman Fred Ortega was very low key when he told CTV-3 that he doesn't know how the letter leaked:
Fred Ortega, Chairman, BSCFA
"In reality we don't know how that letter came out, because ourselves we have not already summons the board to look over that letter, so we don't know how it came out and how the media got a hold of that letter, because those are dealt with confidentially."
Reporter
"BSI being suspended, does that in any way affect the BSCFA which is the largest association?"
Fred Ortega, Chairman, BSCFA
"At this point I am unable to speak about it, because it is FLOCERT that is dealing with it. Only they know the corrective measures that they will be taken, because as I've said before we don't know which are the points that FLOCERT took to suspend them, so based on that its FLOCERT and BSI that will depend on what BSI will send as their corrective measures, because only they know at this point what was sent to them by FLOCERT."
Reporter
"What does it mean when FLOCERT suspends the association or in this case BSI/ASR?"
Fred Ortega, Chairman, BSCFA
"Well, for you to get a suspension depends if you get a major non-compliance and with one major compliance you get, you are being suspended, because they are minor non-compliance also, but you go through 2-3 times having the same non-compliance even though they are minor, then that becomes a major and that takes you to a suspension and as a group, like in our case the association - whenever we get suspended we have to send to FLOCERT our corrective measures that we will be taking."
ASR/BSI says the current de-certification doesn't affect any cane supplier that it has contracts with.
And while the ASR/BSI suspension is one issue, the much bigger issue currently facing the industry is that the BSCFA is not keeping up with cane supply, and many days, there are no trucks in the queue. Ortega did concede this shortcoming today:
Fred Ortega, Chairman, BSCFA
"For the past 2 weeks BSI have really been showing a good milling rate of an average of 300 per hour and lately as you have seen there was a little bit of rainy weather that we had and the situation with the heat right now that we have, the situation with the works that are being done in improvement of the roads - those are causes right now for the farmers or for the different groups that delay their time to deliver, because as you know compiling everything together makes that many groups are unable to deliver on time. But nevertheless, farmers are trying their best and we tend to not be on time, but we are still moving and trying to deliver our cane. So, really right now BSI or the mill is demonstrating a good milling rate at this point."
Ortega explained that labour is an issue since many cane cutters have sought other work which gives them week long employment.
