Tomorrow, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association will have a general membership meeting in San Juan village in the Corozal District. And while it is pushing for everyone to come out - ASR/BSI is pushing back. Today the company sent out an announcement to cane farmers in which it makes it clear it is willing to make adjustments to the 18 page contract it circulated at meetings earlier this week.
So the new deal from ASR/BSI is that the consultation period extended until Tuesday, November 18th. After that, the company will factor in input from the farmers, and will issue a final agreement by Friday 21 November.
This is a change because at first they said the contract they put out this week was not subject to change.
But two things that won't change are the ownership of the cane and the proposed payment for bagasse. ASR's Vice President of International Relations told us as much by phone from the UK this evening:
Mac McLachlan - International Relations Advisor, ASR
"If the question Jules is about ownership then we are very clear, every industry in the world have to own its sugar otherwise it can't contract to sell it. And the second thing bagasse; we have come to a natural impasse on bagasse. We are not going to get any further and we are wasting time preparing for the future of the industry. And that why we are not prepare to countenance what we tried last year and it fail, so there is no point in trying again this year. We are responding to cane farmers and that we believe it's their constitutional right to do that. We don't believe in intimidation and threats and that's why we are offering a choice."
The announcement to farmers notes that quote, "Where BSI has not been able to accommodate suggested changes, a full explanation will be provided."
That all builds to two weeks from now, the cut-off date of Friday 28 November. That's when BSI will determine whether a sufficient volume of farmers have signed to account for the minimum supply of 6,000 tons of cane per day. That's how much is needed to efficiently operate the Tower Hill factory - anything less would be a loss and not worth the while.
So, it will be a testy two weeks, with both the factory owners and the cane farmers association jostling for support. BSI today sent out a press release saying that quote,
"Some leaders of the BSCFA have again resorted to threats and intimidation, which is not a new phenomenon in the industry. Any undesirable action arising from this can have severe consequences on the sugar industry and the national economy. This has gone on for too long at the expense of building a commercially focused and viable industry. We will not be intimidated by these threats.."
7News will be at the Cane Farmers meeting tomorrow and on Monday's news, we'll tell you how it went.
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