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Like all compromises hatched in the hurly burly of an industrial dispute, the resolution to move forward is an imperfect one. It was signed at 6:00pm, so last night, we were only able to provide you with a rough outline of what's in the final deal. Tonight, Daniel Ortiz revisits the signing from yesterday, and tries to put it in context of entire bagasse standoff:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The executives of both BSI and the cane farmers association arrived at the Staff Club about a half hour later than expected. That's after the meeting was pushed back another hour and a half. For a season that was already delayed for 2 months, what was another 2 hours, right?

It must have been the fact that it was pretty much a done deal that the sense of urgency was put aside.

The last hurdle, as we showed you, was getting the farmers to sign on. Tough as it was, the association got them to see reason, and they threw in their support at the final hour of the Sunday meeting.

Both sides entered into the meeting area, and after a brief discussion about the document, both sides signed the interim agreement.

The bagasse issue is still unsettled, but commitments to resolve it are good enough for the cane deliveries to start.

Joey Montalvo - CEO, BSI
"I am particularly pleased that we signed today and I think we now must focus on the crop, getting the crop off the ground. We have a late start and we have a big crop to mill."

"We must also focus on the negotiations coming ahead as well to finalize that."

That signing last night got all the pomp and pageantry it deserved. The undercurrent, the issue no one really wanted to address, however, was the fact that the farmers have agreed to an uneasy truce.

They are taking BSI's word for it that these negotiations will be done amicably.

Joey Montalvo - CEO, BSI
"It's basically moving from a position of no payment to a position of that we will consider payment and then negotiate the payment. During the process of negotiating we will determine the payment and then we will make the payment. That's basically where we are."

Daniel Ortiz
"While it is a positive move forward, almost never happened because some farmers who wanted to press further because they believe that BSI isn't giving that commitment and as a result they feel as if though BSI isn't serious about this bagasse issue."

Joey Montalvo - CEO, BSI
"Well we never played games. I think it was serious from the start that we said we would consider; we would negotiate the quantum and then commit to a payment. I think there has been a great misunderstanding. There has been some confusion, but I think that the time will tell where we are going to be towards the end of the crop once we have determined the quantum that there will be a payment. I think these things are inevitable; you won't get everybody to be happy. There is quite a lot of misinformation sometimes; in fact even I believe the media is responsible for some of that."

So, since the "misinformation" is cleared up, how good is their commitment to fully resolve this dispute?

Joey Montalvo - CEO, BSI
"Good faith is really a statement of honest intent and it is sort of standard to use the words good faith in agreement such as the one that we signed today and so that what it is; a statement of honest intent."

The Government of Belize has already started work on fixing the sugar roads, and the date agreed upon for the first cane deliveries is next week Monday, January 20, at 10 a.m.