And while that regional body was holding its forum on fisheries, representatives of the CARICOM nations were simultaneously participating in a Sugar Stakeholders Meeting.
It's part of the 5-days of meetings that CARICOM and The Council for Trade and Economic Development are holding in Belize. It's a particularly important topic for the Belizean authorities within the local sugar industry. That's because, as we've told you, the Government has been on a campaign to get Belizean sugar sold within the CARICOM market. If the CARICOM Nations agree to purchase Belize's direct consumption sugars, it immediately translates into better prices for the cane farmers who took a beating last year on the world market. They had a record year for the amount of cane delivered, and the amount of sugar produced. But instead of enjoying a boon in revenues, they got a meager payment, due to the very low world market prices.
So, we stopped by the meeting this morning at the Biltmore Plaza Hotel to get a feel for what Belize's representatives had to say at this Sugar Stakeholders Meeting. Here's what the Agricultural Minister Godwin Hulse told us:
Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"This is the CARICOM agriculture minister's conference. The objective of course is to get consensus on some of the topics that we want to advance to the COTED meeting, the heads in November. In this particular meeting where sugar is of prime importance to us, because we've been trying forever to get our sugar sold easily in the Caribbean with respect both to brown plantation white and a mechanism to monitor violations. As you know the challenge is plantation white. As I always say in the Caribbean, it was built on sugar. That is why we all look how we look, because the English people and other brought slaves and Indians and everybody to work in sugar plantations and we, 400 years later, can't sell sugar within this common market, we are wasting time and so to tell me that Belizean plantation white sugar is not white enough, is not good enough , is madness in a way, because as you all know and perhaps you've heard from the consultant's report all the manufacturers in Belize has been using plantation white in Belize. This is the purpose of today's meeting - a stakeholder in sugar to get this clarified, to listen to presentations to upgrade it to the agenda tomorrow which is teh full COTED and then on to the heads meeting in November."
"Coca Cola in Belize is no different from Coca Cola around the world. Coca Cola rules Coca Cola round the world; that is Sprite, Fanta, Coca Cola and other products. If they can in Belize use Belize sugar why can't they in Jamaica use Belize Sugar or they in Trinidad use Belize sugar. It's the same big company. They rule the world when it comes to soft drinks."
Mac McLachlan, Director, B.S.I.
"This is a huge week for us in the sugar industry. The reason is that ever since the loss of value in our traditional export market in the EU, we have been looking for ways in which we can ensure that our sugars from the CARICOM are utilized properly in the CARICOM market. At this stage it is a very strange market for us because with a demand of about 300,000 tons of sugar for CARICOM; that's for retail and also for manufacturing, 200,000 tons of that sugar is imported from outside of the CARICOM, even though CARICOM producers are producing around 500,000 tons of sugar and that means as a displacement of the market for our sugars that we are trying to fill, because that's basically that's what every region does in the world, it utilizes its own sugar product. It's very unusual in CARICOM that so much extra regional sugar is imported into the region when there is such a high production of sugar that is then forced to be exported at very low global market prices and we are asking for one simple thing and that's under the CET that white sugar is placed on the list of ineligible products, for differentiated tariff duties by different member states. That's the same position as brown sugar in the region. In that case if we can produce or other producers in the region can produce the quality required, sugars coming in from extra regions, outside the region would have to pay the CET. If we can't produce it to the qualities required then a CET exemption would still be in place, so very simple move that we are moving towards."
The CARICOM AND COTED meetings continue tomorrow and end on Friday.
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