Last night we told you about the statement from Bowen and Bowen on the sugar increase proposed by the four sugar associations and supported by the government.
Bowen & Bowen is one of the largest local buyers of Belizean Sugar and says, quote, "Any adjustments to local sugar pricing would affect the competitiveness of Belize-made products."
Instead of a price increase, they say, quote, "Rather than increasing prices to the Local Market….it may be more advantageous….if efforts focused on improving sugarcane yields per acre to align more closely with regional standards."
Today, the Minister of Agriculture rejected that. He said local sugar is being sold at a loss:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"My question would be to everybody; would they produce a product and sell it less than what it cost to produce? No. Nobody would do that. Certainly, Bowen and Bowen would never sell something cheaper than what it cost them to produce."
"So why should the farmers do that?"
"I said earlier that if there is an increase in the price of sugar, it has to be a structured increase. It means that it will be a price for those large consumers like Bowen and Bowen, for the bread makers - industrial users. You cannot sell them a product the same price that you sell one sack of sugar. We will meet with the stakeholders and discuss these things before we implement any increase."
The controlled local price of sugar is 75 cents per pound.
The cane farmers also asked for a sharp increase in the price of molasses used to make rum. Distillers we spoke to also oppose that - saying it will put them at a major competitive disadvantage against regional imports.
Minister Mai also rejected that:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"But if you look at the per capita consumption of sugar, it's not a lot you know. I think it's like 50-56 pounds per person per year times seventy-five cents. So if you increase by.25 cents or.50 cents, that will not impoverish everybody. So, it's not like you will spend thousands of dollars more on sugar,1 and 2, we should consume less sugar as a country. We have obesity, we have hypertension, we have diabetes - we have a lot of these cases in Belize. So we should consume less sugar."
"And so I believe that it is not something that will impoverish a nation, it's not that."
The growers associations also asked for an increase in the rate BEL pays to Belcogen for energy - which BEL has also rejected. We'll have that later on in the news.
