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For the past two nights you've been hearing ASR/BSI and the UDP complain about a new statutory instrument -SI No 62 of 2023, the Sugar Industry Licence to Import/ Export Sugar Regulations. It gives the Sugar Industry Control Board power to issue licenses to export sugar and any related product. It also compels ASR/BSI to pay fair trade premiums. The company says the news regs are, quote, "intrusive, unreasonable, disproportionate and harmful to BSI's commercial interests."
And whaat does the Minister of Agriculture say about it? Well, he says ASR/BSI is just avoiding accountability. He adds that if they aren't prepared to comply with the laws of this country, they can leave. Here's how he put it to PLUS TV in Belmopan yesterday:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Yes, I knew that the sugar industry had existed. And as section 57, it clearly says that you need an export permit. All we're doing is operationalising the Sugar Industry Act. So we did the S.I.. Look, the question is, why are they opposing the S.I.? The S.I. simply is asking for disclosure. Disclosure that they failed to give the cane farmers.
"All a narrative on the press release they wrote means one thing we do not want to disclose to the farmers or to anybody how much fair trade freedom is. How much trade sugar is sold and how much is due to the farmer. From what the farmers are seeing and from evidence seen is that they did sell BSFA sugar at a premium price and the farmers have not received a payment yet."
"So this regulation protects the farmers and it stops you from doing those un-ethical practices. We don't want them to leave. But if you don't want to abide by the laws what do you do?"
A Cabinet brief today says, quote, "After a full discussion on the sugar industry and the revelation that for two years the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association had not benefited from premiums derived from fair trade, Cabinet approved BZ$1 million in subsidies for the association to be used for fertilizer to improve crop yield."
