C.O.I. Into Sugar Industry Hits the Ground Running

The Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry has begun its work. Hugh O’Brien, the Lead Coordinator of the Commission of Inquiry, informed News Five that the commission has met with B.S.I. He explained that the company has been very open to the process thus far. He further noted that the commission has also received a presentation from Santander and that they had scheduled meetings with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association today. Here is what he told us.

 

Hugh O’Brien, Lead Coordinator, Commission of Inquiry

“The ambience between the people that the commissioners have met, particularly, we’ve sat down, we spent a day and a half with BSI.  That went extremely well. BSI was very, very open. They shared their ideas, information that they had with them and various components of the factory and how the factory operates and their overall program and their views for the industry in terms of what they see is needed for Belize from their perspective. And then the tour of the factory with BSI went extremely well. And then the following day, the second day they did a tour of field activities, BSI’s operations at the field level, their farms and the services that they are with a view from their perspective that they have in mind. That they can contribute towards helping to modernize the industry in Belize. The commissioners have not yet met with the association. This morning, in fact, while I was doing an interview there with CTV3 and their talk show, they are calling me because currently they are meeting with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association at the SIRDE office in Buena Vista. The commissioners also yesterday did a complete, they received a presentation from Santander which have a very different structure and they’ve toured the Santander factory, and they also had a complete tour of the Santander fields of sugar cane. So, they’re getting a good view and a good handle of what is, what is occurring in Belize. Before that, they had presentations from the staff at the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute. They had a presentations and discussion with the sugarcane production committee because the way sugar is delivered in the north is very different than the west and is a very intricate system in the north because of the large number of small farmers and people battling to try to get their sugar into the factory. So, I have to say that both B.S.I. and Santander so far is going quite well.”