Last night you saw the Financial Controller of ASR/BSI making public appeal for the Belize Sugar Can Farmers Association to sign a 4 year commercial agreement ASAP, so that this year's sugar can crop can start on time - and achieve a maximum yield.
Well, the response appears to be negative. The BSCFA leaders today told CTV-3 that they won't agree to a 4 year agreement and are in no hurry to sign. Here is their interview translated from Spanish:
Elvis Reyes, Chairman, BSCFA Steering committee
"BSI sent us a proposal for a new commercial Agreement this week. We were reviewing it and saw that there are four points we want to change because in reality BSCFA does not 100% agree. I am here with my colleagues, the Chairman of Finance and the CEO to help us a little. The most important thing that we have noticed is the four years that they want us to sign in the agreement. It is something BSI presented from the beginning that goes against BSCFA's position. We have always maintained that we will only sign for a year, since they began to assemble their commission of inquiry promised by the government. The government has promised us that the commission of inquiry was made for the betterment of the industry."
Javier Keme, BSCFA's Finance Committee
"The question that Don Alonzo answered, I would only like to clarify the other reason why we ask for it to be one year. This is because the events that are happening at the same time and the intention to implement the commission of inquiry takes a process to establish and we do not want to interfere in that by accepting a contract of four years. In the previous contracts that we signed with BSI there is no exit Clause. When you sign four years until the four years expire you cannot do anything to end the contract before. If this clause existed it would be different, but it does not exist in what we have signed and that is why we prefer a period of one year, and if it is not completed we extend another year to give time for that commission of inquiry to finish their investigation. The second reason is, as Don Alonzo mentioned, what the global sugar industry will focus on right now. Right now the prices are high because the demand is higher than the supply, and these are things that we cannot take control of. How will this be maintained? I've seen in the past two years that those good prices on the market may start to drop, and how will those production costs be maintained? These are the things that we have to be evaluating in short term, and if the contract we sign will allows us to do so, it would be different."
A press release from ASR and BSI says, quote, "Let us not be distracted by BSI's repeated claims of investments nor the occurrence of a record cane price of sugar cane last crop due to the increased world market price of sugar. Let us focus on the conclusion of a fair commercial agreement that will provide cane farmers with a fair price of their cane based on verifiable costs of sugar manufacture and marketing."
They are calling on government to, quote, "kindly assist us in signing a one year interim agreement with BSI."
