Today, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association held a press conference to say they are not signing any 4 year commercial agreement with ASR/BSI.
Now, this is their known position so it's not exactly news. But CEO Oscar Alonzo explained why they will only agree to signing a one year agreement:
Oscar Alonzo, CEO, BSCFA
"Members have approved, right, that we do not sign a long-term agreement at this point, that we sign only a one-year agreement. We are confident that we will sign an agreement before the crop starts, an interim agreement, as this is the assurance that the government of Belize has provided us that the crop cannot start unless there is an agreement signed between the BSCFA and the BSI."
They say they are singing an interim agreement to give the government designated commission of inquiry time to make findings about the company's operations - which are critical inputs to any decision making process going forward:
Oscar Alonzo, CEO, BSCFA
"With this interim agreement, then it will give the time required by the Commission of the Inquiry to undertake its investigation, its thorough investigation and their report and recommendations could serve as a basis for us to sit down with BSI and then negotiate a fair commercial agreement that would provide a fair cane price to cane farmers."
"How do they expect the farmers them to bind themselves to four years, right? If they do not have any certainty as to how those costs of handling sugar, marketing and the manufacturing learnings are determined. You're asking me to accept those costs for four years and I have no idea, how fair that those costs are."
We'll keep following the story.
