A release from the Bureau says quote, "The Ministry of Economic Development, Petroleum, Investment, Trade and Commerce, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture. hereby informs the general public that effective January 1, 2016, Plantation White Sugar will retail at a maximum price of 75 cents per pound countrywide. A Statutory Instrument has been signed by the Minister…"

That's a steep 50% increase, which will likely put a hurting on consumers, but it provides relief for the farmers who requested it to mitigate the losses that will result as a consequence of the low sugar prices in Europe.

Today, the factory owners, BSI/ASR was the first to release a statement welcoming the change noting the intended mitigation. The company also reiterated that Belize's prices for local sugar has been the lowest for decades when compared to countries in Central America and the Caribbean. According to them, this is the reason for the illegal cross-border sale of Belizean sugar by contrabandists who buy it cheap in Belize and sell it expensive to our neighbors. BSI also wrote a letter to the chairmen of the 3 cane farming associations notify them that the Government has delivered on the price increase promise.

But, whenever there's a price change, there's all kinds of hanky-panky that happens where the consumers are the ones to suffer. The release from the Bureau of Standards stresses that the price change takes effect on New Years day, January 1, 2016. This means that until that time, local retailers - meaning your nearest grocery shop owners - must sell a pound of sugar to you for 50 cents. They should not be selling it to you at 75 cents - that would be unlawful.

Additionally, the Bureau warns these shop owners not to try to hoard the sugar they currently have in stock to earn a price windfall when the new price takes effect on January 1. They remind that violators of these consumer protection statutes could be imprisoned for 6 months, fined a thousand dollars, or be sentenced to both punishments.