| One week ago in the House of Representatives, the Sugar Industry Amendment Act was passed into law. It allows for other growers groups to exist and do business with the factory owners.
It's the realization of a long held dream which Wilfredo Magana and the members of the United Cane Farmers Association initiated back in 2009 when they went to the Supreme Court.
And on Monday, 5 years after they were supposed to do it, the Government of Belize finally complied with the terms of the Court consent order and changed the law, allowing the 2 new associations to legally exist.
And so, at today' official opening of the grinding season, Wilfredo Magana was present to witness the first season with more than one association delivering cane. The media took the opportunity to ask him why his association, the United Cane Farmers Association, didn't become the third group to sign independently.
The question arises because Universal merged with the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association. Magana says that it happened because the Government took too long to make the necessary changes to the law:
Wilfredo Magana
"I really gave up on it. In 2011- 2012 I kind of given up. I said I wouldn't revisit it. The court gave an order and I was expecting that that would have been done immediately and at that time we had a very strong group, the United Cane Farmers Association were very strong, providing fertilizer and services for our cane farmers, but because at that point the law was not amended in its right time, we didn't have the finance to continue running the office or managing the group that we had because it was a large group. It's never too late, it came right within its own time, so I am happy for that."
So, while he discussed the merged association that he is now a part of, he also discussed the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, from which he and others broke away. Magana was highly critical of the association when he was asked about its continued survival in the wake of the splintering, which happened earlier this month.
Wilfredo Magana
"My honest prediction of their survival would be that they need to do a forensic audit report on the BSCFA I think from 2008, from when the Fair Trade premium - because it's over 50 million dollars that had pass through their hands. If they could do a forensic audit report and if they could, on those report, the people who get identify to be misusing and mismanaging these funds, if they could bring these people to justice - to give it some type of encouragement that the people say we have a reason to stay there. I think if they can do that, they will survive. But they continue with the system that they are using now, I think that very pretty soon and you might be able to see this next year. In terms of people have the opportunity to join this group, this association that has already formed. Unless they do that, a total forensic audit of what has been breaking them down, I think their survival will be very slim in the future."
And while, Magana believes that the BSCFA will be experience further challenges in the months to come, BSCFA Orange Walk Branch chairman, Alfredo Ortega says otherwise.
Ortega says that after the splintering, the BSCFA Committee of Management has tabulated its numbers properly, and they have 4,154 members on record. If those numbers are correct, it means that the BSCFA only lost 25% of its members and not the 42% initially estimated.
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