Tonight the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association is at another pivotal crossroads. They're being strongly urged by the government to accept the settlement of a lawsuit against Tate and Lyle Sugars and BSI for Fairtrade monies in exchange for one million dollars in assistance from the government.
It's desperate times in Cane country and reports suggest that BSCFA's leadership and membership are divided on the issue.
Not so much for the Prime Minister where the only division is between what he says publicly and what he wrote privately to the BSCFA Chairman.
Jules Vasquez looks at both:
On February 25th, Prime Minister John Briceno who's also the Minister of the Sugar Industry wrote to the Chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) offering the association an incentive to settle the Fairtrade legal dispute with BSI and Tate & Lyle Sugars.
According to the cane farmers, that was first proposed in a meeting on December 19th with the Minister who has day-to-day responsibility for the sugar industry, Osmond Martinez. The association noted that "acceptance of ASR's conditions would require the BSCFA to waive its right to recover approximately BZD $11 million in Fairtrade Premiums already earned over the past four crop years."
The PM's reply was much like Martinez: accept 1.1 million in state funds and drop that court claim against Tate and Lyle and BSI. But, in an interview yesterday the PM spoke a falsehood when he said that the government has not proposed for them to drop the case:
Reporter
"Has government proposed that they drop the case?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No, government has not proposed for them to drop the case, what the government has been saying is that it is their right if they want to go to court but at the same time what they have been doing is spending all of this time losing monies from fair trade and so forth to the detriment of its farmers and it's a decision that they want to make if they want to continue or not."
The Prime Minister's written statement, however, indicated that government's financial support is "contingent with the Association dropping their claim in court." The PM made it clear he is only trying to help because, as a cane farmer himself, he has already sought alternatives.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I have left the BSCFA because I don't see I'm getting anywhere so I went to Progressive Progressive to sign on for Fairtrade so we will get the support from Fairtrade."
