The sugar shortage continues and as we have reported, ASR/BSI has been forced to import sugar to meet the demand. This evening we saw one store advertising a fresh stock of Domino sugar - which we know is a US made brand.
And while it's an awful shame for a sugar producing country to be importing - it's been forced by the low cost of sugar - which has triggered smugglers to buy Belizean sugar to smuggle it over to Guatemala and Mexico where it fetches a better price.
BSI ASR has been asking for an increase in the controlled price of white sugar, and today we asked the Prime Minister if he had considered granting them this increase:
Jo
"They say the need for an increase in the control price of white sugar is dire because Belize is now importing sugar. Due to the fact that all our local supplies have been smuggled across the borders, seeing that we are now importing, are you inclined to grant them that increase?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, this is a matter of supply and demand. We can make as much sugar available that's highly subsidized and people as much as you try to tell them that they need to keep it in Belize, they're going to find ways to smuggle it into the other countries because the price is as much as three times higher than Belize."
"So it is something that we will have to be able to consider, simply to be able to keep the sugar in Belize because if it is going to be smuggled out, we will have to import it from abroad and it's going to be way more expensive."
"So it is something that we've been considering, of course, we're very hesitant in doing that because we do realize that a lot of people, many Belizeans are going through a difficult time because of the high cost of living, which is something, as I repeat, over and over, we don't have any control over."
"We import inflation. But if you want to take some good news out of a bad situation, is that Belize have one of the lowest levels of inflation and we're looking at the numbers from the statistical institute of Belize, SIB, our inflation rate has peaked and is starting to slowly go down."
If we were the betting types, we'd say that increase in price just might come after the March municipal elections.
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