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But, as viewers are aware, there is the collective push from industry stakeholders for Belize's sugar to enter the CARICOM market. 

All of last year, the Ministries of Trade and Agriculture had been working with the industry's private sector partners to collaborate with the other sugar-producing nations of the Caribbean. They want to ensure that regionally produced sugar can be sold within the CARICOM market. The sugar-producing nations assert that currently, sugar produced from outside of the region is flooding the marketplace, undermining the CSME. 

And so, they have been lobbying the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to institute the necessary protections to stop this. The Caribbean sugar producers say that the Caribbean market needs to make space for sugar produced by Caribbean countries.

Agriculture Minister Godwin Hulse already reported positive developments on that initiative, and ASR/BSI's Mac McLachlan, filled in the details:

Mac McLachlan - VP, International Relations, ASR Group
"Yes, they've been positive developments, and we're grateful for the support given by the government last year to make that movement. I mean, we've seen more movement within the COTED mechanism of CARICOM in the last year, than we had for probably for 10 years before that. Where we are now, we have a firm commitment from COTED that brown sugar, that's been entering the CARICOM market, without paying the common external tariff should cease. And that should reopen that market for our quality direct consumption sugars. If that isn't happening, we are going to have to look at taking legal action to ensure that that market is secure. Another outcome from COTED was that there will now be a proper monitoring mechanism to assess how much sugar - the demand and supply of sugar - required in the region. And that will enable us to plan for the future. And the third issue is that when we can make the quality required, that that sugar should receive the protection of the common external tariff."

"We're not there yet. We've got a way to go on this issue. We're gonna need consistent pressure from sugar-producing countries, governments, and we're gonna continue with that this year. The first step is to secure that brown market for our industry. The next step is to make sure we know exactly what the supply and demand are of sugar in the region. The third step is to make sure that we fill that gap."