B.S.I.: There’s More than Enough Sugar on the Shelves  

Belize Sugar Industries has clarified that there is no sugar shortage in Belize. As we reported on Thursday, some supermarkets in Belize City have limited the amount of sugar to two pounds at a time per family. This raised the question of whether the country is experiencing a sugar shortage. However, Prime Minister John Briceño explained to News Five that this was not the case. He said that distributors are simply attempting to limit the amount of sugar sold illicitly outside of the country. Today we spoke with B.S.I. Communications Officer, William Neal who reiterated that Belize has more than enough sugar.

 

William Neal, Communications Officer, B.S.I.

“The sugar grinding season ended and we’re now repairing the mill, but we do have stocks that should suffice until we start our next crop in December. Currently, in our warehouse, we have more than eight point one million pounds of white sugar and more than two point five million pounds of brown sugar. Based on what we saw last year, we have made some changes in terms of selling directly to the stores. And so the issue is, there’s no middleman that is diverting the sugar. It’s being sold directly to the stores. The shortages that people are reporting on the shelves is actually controlled directly by the stores themselves. We know that there’s a larger issue of contraband sugar going across the borders, but that’s an enforcement issue and that is beyond our control. We’ve not had massive shifts in terms of demand. We continue to use historical data to supply both plantation white sugar and brown sugar to the stores. So there should be no shortages. As I said, there are no middlemen either, so the stores themselves are accessing sugar directly that we have destined for the local market, the domestic market. So that’s something that we will maintain that there should be no shortages. And we have more than ample supply to make sure that we have sugar available for local consumption going into the next crop in December.”