While ASR/BSI was sending out a press release yesterday objecting to a new piece of legislation, the Ministry of Agriculture wasn't wasting any time - it was putting it in the gazette!
It's SI No 62 of 2023, the Sugar Industry Licence to Import/ Export Sugar Regulations and it gives the Sugar Industry Control Board power to issue licences to export sugar and any related product. It also compels ASR/BSI to pay fair trade premiums.
Today, ASR/BSI held a press conference via Zoom to say that it finds the regulations burdensome and discriminatory. Here's more from their Director of Finance:
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.
"Really we think should be happening is to reduce the burden of the documentation that is required to export sugar. In this case, it's beyond trying to control the export by first having a license to export and then having to apply for a permit every single time we want to do a shipment of direct consumption outside of Belize. Its more to do into getting the private commercial affairs of BSI and in particular, I think this was signalled already that government wants to find a way to get the Fairtrade funds paid to the B.S.C.F.A. And in a sense, this is an attempt to do that; to force a B.S.I. to collect and received Fairtrade premium because that is a specific clause in the legislation. And we have tried to point out that it is not going to work because at the end of the day, B.S.I. is not the party that pays the premium. It is the buyer of the sugar who markets and sells Fairtrade sugar ultimately in these markets that pays the premium. And so the legislation cannot compel third party organization to do something that is not part of their business practice. So this attempt really will not achieve, we believe that objective, and we have tried very hard to explain that. But it seems it is not going anywhere. So we definitely object to this legislation."
Jules Vasquez
"What does ASR/BSI plan to do about it? Will it make a challenge in court?"
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.
"At this time that's what we are weighing in terms of whether we challenge the legislation. We have received legal advice on it and we are considering that. Given the extent in which we believe this interferes with our commercial business and confidentiality of it; that's something that we are seriously taking onboard, whether to proceed with challenging this legislation."
Reporter
"How would you respond to the minister's comments this morning, where he said that basically you all, the entire rejection from BSI is based on the fact that you don't want to be transparent with the control board, in terms of audits and that this is your way of not wanting to give the farmers what they are actually due?"
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.
"That is certainly not the case, every month when we had the SICB meeting we demonstrated that. Every month BSI sends a report of all the shipments of export that it did and it sends it to all the associations, it sends it to the sugar industry control board and that's the same report that we also share with the statistical institute of Belize and the central bank."
"In terms of transparency, all that information is in there, so as we said it's not about that. It's trying to find a way to compel BSI to pay the Fairtrade premium which all the signals that were being sent was that that's where this was headed, to find a way to force BSI to make these Fairtrade premium payments."
Reporter
"When you talk about paying the Fairtrade premiums, do you mean that the legislation is saying that BSI/ASR has to take out money from their pockets to pay the Fairtrade premiums or to obtain this money from Tate and Lyle and then disburse it?"
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.
"Yes, the legislations is saying that BSI has to collect the premiums and pay the premiums to the farmers and if it doesn't abide by that, its license can be revoked. Meaning, we cannot do business, because if we are unable to export sugar, then we can't function properly as a business. So it can have big ramifications for our day to day business if we don't have a license to export sugar and that is a new requirement. That is something that has never existed in the 50 plus years that BSI has operated. We have never collected those Fairtrade funds and we have never paid it to the associations and so that's what the legislation is seeking to do; compel us to do that."
Reporter
"For the past 2 years there's been some challenges in the industry, perhaps leading to questioning its worthwhile to have a presence here or not."
Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, B.S.I.
"I prefer we don't go that route. At the end of the day, we still want to have open dialogue and communication with the government and so I think we refrain from that one and leave that to our vice presidents and country VPs to perhaps better respond to that one."
As you heard, ASR/BSI has made no concrete plan to challenge the legislation in court.
