By: Omar Silva, NP Staff Writer

Belize City: Wednesday, 8th March 2023

Belizean farmers of the BSCFA  and opposition leaders have set up camp on Melhado Parade, near the Cain Building, and have circled Market Square and the National Assembly in central Belmopan to protest the lack of progress in negotiations with Belize Sugar Industries Limited/American Sugar Refining (BSI/ASR). The protest coincided with an appearance by executives of BSI before the Executive Committee of Management, which had been granted to the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) in January.

The Chairman of the Committee of Management, Alfredo Ortega, insists that a Commission of Inquiry is necessary to get to the bottom of why an agreement with BSI/ASR cannot be reached. He said, "We want the commission of inquiry to be approved so that then they can come with information that is needed for a better agreement with BSI. We want a different commercial agreement; we have been looking forward to that. We got promises from before this party came into government that changes will be done. We're expecting those changes to happen."

Ortega reminded that farmers want to be relieved of growing costs for cane production, taking 60 percent of the gross revenue before expenses. If the protest does not result in a palatable agreement for them, Chairman Ortega said they are prepared to go further. But Ortega stopped short of saying what their next step of action will be. "And we have to go further, we will go further because what we are looking for (is) the benefit of our farmers, not for a personal benefit. ...if our farmers are in good standing, the community is in good standing and their families are in good standing." He would not say if the BSCFA was prepared to go as far as blocking the mill from accepting deliveries from other cane farmers as happened in 2021 and early 2022.

Ortega also acknowledged that before BSCFA splintered, they had suggested a rise in domestic sugar prices, but while the price of plantation white sugar rose in 2014, brown sugar has remained consistently at 39 cents per pound retail, though unofficially sold at higher prices. Now is not the best time for such an increase because it would "penalize" consumers: "We are not in agreement with that because there are many other ways where the price per ton of cane can be increased in favour of the farmer without having to penalize the Belize consumers in raising the price of sugar because if they raise the price of sugar, believe me, you that the bread and other stuff will be increased. So, we as the BSCFA, we don't support that. What we want is that that forty/sixty be instituted and then the farmers will get a better payment for their cane."