And going back to sugar now…the crop crisis has been set aside, but the other issue facing the Belize Sugar cane Farmers Association is a possible decertification from Fair Trade.
Last week, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association finished giving out 4 million dollars of Fair Trade Premiums, bringing the grand total of monies improperly disbursed by to 6.5 million dollars in one month.
Yesterday, CEO Oscar Alonzo was asked for his opinion on the state of those affairs, and he told us that he hopes that Fair Trade doesn't look at the disbursements as isolated incident. Alonzo said that the auditors need to look at the overall improvements and attempts at compliance, as well as the circumstances surrounding why they asked for the premiums to be given out the way they were:
Fair Trade has already written to the association to warn them that a suspension or decertification is most likely going to be the result from the next Flo Cert Audit.
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