How B.S.I. Will Steer Industry through 2017 E.U. Price Cuts

Mac Maclachlan

As we reported on Monday, sugar farmers in Corozal and Orange Walk are bracing for direct competition next year with European sugar beet farmers. Beginning in 2017, the quota secured many years ago by the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc of nations will be ended. But Belize Sugar Industries and its American partner, American Sugar Refining, are preparing to try new markets and strategies to sell Belizean sugar. Vice President of International Relations, Mac Maclachlan, explains.

Mac Maclachlan, Vice President, International Relations, BSI/ASR

“There is a good future. We are looking at all sorts of opportunities in the European market; producing more of what we call Demerara or direct consumption sugars, where you get a higher profit, which of course is good for the whole industry; so we are looking at that. The other thing we’re looking at, with the support of the Belize Government and other sugar producing governments in the Caribbean, is the Caribbean market; because as things stand in the Caribbean, there is no tariff that prevents the importation of refined sugar into the Caribbean, and recently, at a recent CARICOM trade meeting, it was agreed that the standards that define refined sugar, we in the Caribbean can meet those standards; and that means that there’s no real reason why there shouldn’t be a tariff put in place which could open a brand new market for Belizean sugar, into the Caribbean.”