Last night, we showed you the comments from Oscar Alonzo, the CEO of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, about the current situation with Fairtrade. He told the media that he hopes that when the auditors from Fairtrade come in, that they consider why the farmers chose to use the money in the way they did, even though it clearly not compliant with the standards.
Well today, Seven News got copy of a letter sent to the association from Jon Walker, Sugar Manager of Fairtrade Foundation. It's dated January 8, and in it, Walker discusses the disbursement of 6.5 million dollars of Fairtrade premiums.
He says, quote, "I write to…express the concern of the Fairtrade Foundation at the continued viability of the BSCFA compliance with Fairtrade Standards." End quote.
Addressing the issue that the farmers may be justified because of the sugar crisis which ended yesterday, Walker says, "While respecting the rights of the membership of BSCFA to decide on their future participation in Fairtrade, and understanding that Belizean sugar industry is going through a turbulent period, I would urge you all to consider the potential impact to BSCFA by leaving Fairtrade."
That would suggest that even though it might be ruled by Fairtrade that the farmers had a justifiable reason for using the money in which they did, they may still be decertified because they failed to make use of the money for what it was intended.
Walker says quote, "The partnership between the Fairtrade Foundation and BSCFA is one that the Fairtrade Foundation has been incredibly proud of and would be deeply sad to see end."
He reminds that in 2017 European beet sugar will no longer be regulated, and so, it will compete directly with cane sugar, which means that the market will become very tough for all cane producers.
Finally Walker ends by asking the Association to consider carefully what it would mean if they complete the disbursement of the monies, which could lead to them leaving the Fairtrade agreement.
As viewers may know, that was several days before the committee of management finally started to cut the cheques for each farmer. That process has been completed, which means that once again, the advice of the Fairtrade officials were ignored. Yesterday in Belmopan, we asked Javier Keme, the Financial Controller Association who signed the 10,600 cheques to share out 6.5 million dollars of Fairtrade Premiums, to comment. He said that even though the farmers made an improper decision, the Association's Committee of Management failed the general membership when they complied:
Javier Keme, BSCFA Financial Controller
"There are three criteria that we have to abide by, the rules of the Fair Trade to disburse the money and that is: 1) it has to be through a massage participation of the farmers. Secondly, it has to be democratic and, thirdly, it has to be accountable. So, the third part is the one that I feel we would have trouble when our audit comes, because each cane farmer by himself, he has to provide evidence on how he use that money. I advise them that it was not correct to do it. The Committee of Management should have stood up to defend and stop and prevent that to happen and they didn't stop it."
Viewers may remember while the cheques were being processed the second time around, the 18 branch chairmen tried to convince the general membership not to force the association to share out the money. But, the cane farmers make all decisions, and majority always wins.
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