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And while Mai says his ministry would like to create a tiered pricing structure for industrial, commercial and householder consumers, that has not been finalized.
But, as he says, government's final decision will not be swayed by the dynamic of sugar smuggling - which the UDP has accused the Briceno administration of being complicit in.
Mai said, not on his watch!:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"This minister Jose Mai has never picked up the phone to call anybody to give them any break to export sugar. AndI can categorically say that clearly, I, this man, has never done so and will never do so when it comes to sugar. Because we have been seeing this problem for a very long time now. AndI have been trying to fight and fix the problem. It is not easy.I am between a rock and a hard place. Because I have taken this matter to Cabinet a number of times. The only way we will fix completely is to make some proper adjustments to the sugar structure."
"Any person who is on the list of BSI."
"any person on that list that depends only not he sale of sugar cannot survive selling the sugar in Belize alone."
Reporter:
"Do you know those names?"
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Of course, well make it public to you."
"If you are a person whos on the list of BSI, and you get 500 sacks of sugar, or 100 sacks of sugar - some get small amounts you know? You cant survive if you see that sugar locally because you are making 5 cents and 8 cents, 9 cents profit."
"So the easiest thing for you to do is to just park your truck in your yard and a next truck comes, load it, and you sell that same sugar that you would have only been able to sell for 75 cents for a dollar and 50 cents to the Guatemalans."
"The price structure in place that was done in 2014 created this environment for illegal things to be done."
