BSI to COI “Sugar Industry Heavily Politicized”

The Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry began today in Orange Walk. The six-member commission is tasked with a wide range of responsibilities outlined within its terms of reference. The objectives include measuring the efficiency of milling factories in Belize, while identifying the inefficiencies that exist. The commission is also working to assess the cost and efficiency of sugarcane cultivation, harvesting and transportation. And these are only a few of the objectives that the commission must meet. The end goal is for the commission to provide recommendations on the best approach to modernizing the industry. Today, the Belize Sugar Industries Limited was in the hot seat, taking questions from the members of the commission for the better part of the day. B.S.I. directly employs just under seven hundred individuals. According to Shawn Chavarria, the Director of Finance at the factory, they indirectly employ some ten thousand workers.

 

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, ASR/BSI

“A lot of the information we have shared and also part of the initial presentations that we made when the commissioners visited in June was to highlight what BSI sees as some of the key challenges that are facing the industry. I know that from a public standpoint this is a lot of interest and scrutiny into the industry. But I think a lot of it masks what are some of the underlying issues. I think what we have tried to convey to this commission of inquiry is that for a lot of years those core issues have not been properly addressed. The reason we think it hasn’t been properly addressed is because the industry has been heavily politicized. A lot of decisions made are not based on technical facts or economics. It is really driven by political expediency and that makes sense to an extent because of the number of farmers the industry in the north supports and by extension their families. It is something that BSI for many years has had to manage. We think that because of that the industry is not where it should be. Some of the things we have highlighted that is really fundamental if this industry is to move forward and become a long standing industry, we need to address the low production. The industry in the north is really one of the lowest cane yields in the world.”