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Sugar Cane, Fair Trade Sanctions, And Hon. Castro
posted (December 5, 2016)
Today's "La Zafra" opening gave us a opportunity to speak with Dr. Carlos Itza. He's the new Chairman of the Sugar Cane Production Committee, which regulates who can deliver how much cane to the factory. On last week Friday's newscast, we showed you our telephone interview with Cabinet Minister Edmond Castro, in which he discussed the allegation that his family's sugar cane dealings may have gotten the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association suspended from Fair Trade.

The BSCFA's members are at risk of losing over a million dollars of financial aid from the UK based organization.

In a recent Fair Trade audit, former BSCFA member Eloy Escalante was flagged for what is referred to as "phantom farming" or "ghost farming". He no longer produces cane, and according to reports, in an interview with Fair Trade Auditors, he admitted that he hasn't been doing so for 3 years. Instead, he entered into a business arrangement with Edmond Castro's son, who is in the sugar cane business. Under the arrangement, Castro's family became the administrators of Escalante's estate, which we are told is a work-around for not being a registered farmer who can deliver cane to the BSI factories.

Now, those we've spoken to, say that this system of selling quotas to someone else, is a practice that has been embedded in the industry for years. It allows for farmers who aren't registered to deliver to buy a quota from registered farmers, but who don't actually own sugar cane farms. Quotas, we understand was a form of political patronage which both mass parties practiced in years past, where those who aren't farmers are rewarded for their loyalty to the party without actually being bonafide producers.

Realizing the difficulty that this old system created, the SCPC, who regulates the list of registered farmers, amended the laws to do away with quotas. But some of these "phantom" farmers like Eloy Escalante still managed to get past the checks and balances.

Today, we asked the Chairman of the SCPC to discuss their attempts at regulating the farming community, to keep them honest.

Dr. Carlos Itza, Chairman, SCPC
"Three years ago the SCPC passed a resolution stating that no new farmers will be accepted. That means that, except in the absence that somebody dies and by inheritance that allocation is provided to close relatives, then it is accepted to create a new farmer but only as any person that has and then that person is living and wants to transfer the production estimate it cannot be done at this stage. Currently you have heard that there is a case of Honorable Castro along with Eloy Escalante. This is one of the cases that was highlighted in the fair trade audit that was conducted. so the Belize Sugarcane farmers they have requested the SCPC to eliminate Eloy Escalante from the farmer registry, but as far as you might be aware is that we wanted to inform that it's not an easy process. This is because I understand that the issue of cane farmers has expelled him from the association but then the law also provides for Eloy to associate himself with any of the other associations or even to be an individual farmer. Of course we are not pushing for him to be an individual farmer, we would want him to integrate into any of the farming community but at the same time, if we apply the principle that whatever we apply to Eloy will also affect other farmers that are known in the system in the association and also in the registry. I think that the system has permitted the creation of administrators. This goes beyond several years ago because the system of administrators was created to help elderly people or people with physical incapacity to be able to give authority to somebody else to manage that allocation, but what happened is that we are seeing that many people try to use the system to get in the farmer registry. I think this is one of the issue that you are seeing here. Somebody was trying to get in, as many others are trying to get in, but we basically have a tight procedure in place right now. There is no quota system."

We also got a chance to speak with the Agriculture Minister Godwin Hulse. His ministerial colleague Edmond Castro's family is under the microscope for this Fair Trade red flag. Here's what he had to say:

Hon. Godwin Hulse
"I've been asked this question over and over now so let me state the facts as I know them. I understand from him he has a license, that's what I understand from him, I haven't checked the records. I also understand from him that he is registered as administrator whereas Eloy Escalante is concerned. I don't know what that administrator means at this point so don't cut and paste that out, I don't know what it means at this point. But what I do know is that he has cane, that I know for a fact because his plantation is next to mine in the Isabella area and I see his trucks coming out, I see his sons driving them, I see him there on the weekend. He has cane and as a man who has cane and is invested, he should be able to sell it. How come his name is not on whatever list and I don't know, and I won't pretend to know. We will find out, but I won't frown on the fact that he has cane and needs to sell his cane. What I would frown on the fact is that his cane would have to be sold in somebody else's name and he has to pay that somebody else because there's no way he can get his cane in and the somebody else name it is in don't have any cane. Those are the kinds of mess, but let's be real he has cane and he should be able to sell his cane. As simple as that."

Last week, the new Chairman of the BSCFA's Committee of Management told us that he could not say anything because the BSCFA is waiting for a response from Fair Trade to find out if their corrective measures taken qualify them for the Fair Trade suspension to be lifted before the 30-day window closes. As you heard from the SCPC Chairman, they have expelled Eloy Escalante from their Association, and they have approached the SCPC to get him removed from the list Registered Farmers.

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