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But, the hope for future sustainability of this industry is in the production of those much discussed direct consumption sugars. Yesterday we learned that ASR/BSI is producing five such sugars, but is still having a hard time penetrating the CARICOM Market:..

Olivia Avilez, Farmer's Relations Mgr., ASR/BSI
"We did plantation white which is our white sugar that we have, local brown, we also did for Caricom and we also have a special sugar that's ordered by Canada. It's a confectionary sugar that has some particular specifications on grain size and color. So 5 types of sugars direct consumption."

William Neal, Communications and Gov't Affairs
"In terms of what we are doing we are putting in place all the right things. I think what we have to do now is secure the markets and while the EU continues to be a very good market for us, we're not getting the good prices or the great prices that we use to have. Caricom is still a good option, but you know the process there. It's been more than 2 years we've been drip, drip in terms of advocacy there, but we do have a consultant coming into town to look at the substitutability of plantation white. What we are doing locally, how some of our local manufacturers for example Bowen and Bowen is using plantation white sugar. So there is a lot happening at the same time. I think we are laying a good foundation. Whenever there is an upswing and we hope that will be soon, in terms of globally, we are in good position to take full advantage of the markets. The work in Caricom is taking much longer than we had anticipated. You have some policy and some breaches of those policies in terms of brown sugar in plantation white and we are advocating for immediate correction in some areas. In other areas the disparities that exists within the market that was created under the revised treaty of Chagaramos, those need to be changer in terms of policy. This business of having people import sugar and they can say I just need refine white sugar to make cookies, when we know that you don't need that. There is going to be a legitimate need for some white sugar, but not in every case. You have 300,000 metric tons that Caricom uses. We think that we can supply quality and quantity for a sustain period of time very easily. But if you correct the breaches in the market, you can do that in a competitive way."

Reporter
"However you all have been lobbying in every way you can. Has there been any measurable headway with COTED for example?"

William Neal, Communications and Gov't Affairs
"I would say yes, because the consultant that is coming next week to look at the substitutability of sugar is a direct result of all the advocacy that we've done. It's taken us longer that we would have like, but you know if you have 300 steps, we're at 250 until they move it to 350. But we have to continue doing the work that is necessary and we feel comfortable along with the support that we've gotten from the government of Belize, including the Prime Minister - that this is such a bread and butter issue for us as a country that it has to be resolve and resolve very soon."

COTED is the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development and they next meet in November in Guyana.