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And while we wait on that: to give you an update on what happened today, no highways were blocked, there were no tyre fires, as an uneasy calm held in the north while all parties were locked in negotiations at the Yo Creek Agricultural Station - which is a few minutes out of Orange Walk town.

And while things are calm at this hour, the excitement early this morning was back in Buena Vista village at mile 65. That's where - before dawn - cane farmers and police intercepted a Guatemalan cargo truck loaded with many sacks of sugar.

Now, the truck had a single Belizean license plate, but it clearly carries the logo of a Guatemalan company named "Lonas Alpes". Reports say they picked up the sugar in the village of Luisville and intended to smuggle it out of the country.

But, that is speculative. Fact is, the truck was southbound on the Phillip Goldson highway far from any border. The Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai said he wanted to go get a close up look when he went to the Orange Walk police station at 9:00 this morning:

Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture

"For a fact I know the sugar in their is in bags that are ASR. ASR I believe have their wholesalers who they sell sugar to, who in turn wholesale. For time now we've been hearing that the sugar was scarce and it's going over to Guatemala and I think before a truck was caught in Guatemala with Belize sugar."

"So apparently, apparently from the reports, it seemed that this sugar was destined for Guatemala also. But the police is doing that investigation. However, I must caution that at this time, if the sugar is to be exported, then it needs an export license from supplies control. But that is when they are in the process of exporting through the border."

"So right now, I think the police is only investigating but they will have to prove that the sugar is to be exported or will be exported. But again, at this time, I don't think there's anything in my view. But it is good to know and to see who is at least fingered in the business of smuggling the sugar across the border because it is unfair that we are having a scarcity of sugar at this time."

"And then we at the same time BSI is importing sugar. And so the timing is awful for the people who are transporting the sugar. Again, they have done, in my view, nothing illegal so far. Because the sugar, was found in Belize territory and not exported, but the indications are that it may could have been that could have been intention, but that has to be proven or they have to be caught in the act."

"So I don't think there's anything there yet because the sugar was in the country. I understand that the driver is Guatemalan. The truck is registered in Belize to someone who lives on the border; Toledo, Guatemala. I know for sure the sacks are in ASR bags and well, we can only speculate. We cannot draw conclusions, but we want to speculate that it probably would have been the intention to get it across the border, but the timing was just wrong."

"They were passing the hotspot at the wrong time and it was just all of over Facebook and of course, the farmers know that the ministry of agriculture is responsible for sugar exports. And so again, they called me and made me aware of this. So I dropped by the police to see what was going on and I got a brief from my director of supplies Control that if there is a regulation in place for exports of sugar, so far only BSI I think has the right to export sugar and Santander."

Reporter:
"Sir, unconfirmed reports are that somehow the marketing board is involved in something like that. Is this anything that you have been made aware of or what would be the implication of that if something like that is true?"

Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"I have not. I have not been aware of that. But when you wholesale sugar, you do not control what the person does when you sell it to them? But out of an abundance of caution, we have instructed BSCFA, sorry we have instructed the BMDC not to, to to sell sugar in large amounts because we don't want to be a part of that."

Tags Jose Mai Orange Walk Belize Guatemala BSI BSCFA