Following this morning’s press conference we managed to get in contact with the Vice Chairman of the BSCFA, Alfredo Ortega. Ortega strongly disagreed with Vice President of ASR, Ricardo Lima who mentioned that the bagasse is not a by-product of sugar cane. Ortega says that the BSCFA has sent a letter to Prime Minister Dean Barrow asking for his intervention.
ALFREDO ORTEGA
“We have a mandate from the farmers and the mandate from the farmers is for us to negotiate with BSI, a payment for bagasse and a new mandate and based on that we continue with that mandate that the farmers have placed on us. It is a pity that they have chosen on their press conference to speak about the bagasse is a waste and that it is a residue out of the cane whereby we clearly know that the bagasse is a byproduct whereas it is now used for biofuel for the Belcogen plant. So now, we continue with our same force in asking for negotiations on behalf of the farmers. We are sending a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a meeting asking for his intervention. We want his intervention so we can come to the table with BSI to negotiate and to finalize this negotiation in regards to the new agreement including a payment for bagasse for the farmers, that is what we have been asking from the DPM and also we have been asking this from the Prime Minister. We don’t want anything else at this point in time; we want to finalize this negotiation because we have been asking for this since 2010 and BSI accepted in July when we started this negotiation and we were very clear that we wanted to finalize this negotiation before the 2013/2014 crop starts and that is where we stand. Once we can finalize this agreement that is on the table then we can deal with the other issues that are in place.”
The general atmosphere at the press conference, gave the impression that the BSCFA was not willing to sit at the table and negotiate. Ortega says that it is untrue and the BSCFA is willing to negotiate before the issue is forced to be settled by the courts.
ALFREDO ORTEGA
“As BSI mentioned in their press release, this is something that we should be negotiating as two stakeholders in the industry and we should be around the table and not be going to the air waves and that is same talk that we have told them from ever since. We don’t have anything to go to the courts; this is something that we need to negotiate between the two of us, not in the court and that is where we stand firm, we want to negotiate this as gentlemen and let them come to the table, they are getting a benefit out of the bagasse, so let us come and share a part of this with the farmers and that is where we stand firm.”
At the press conference it was mentioned that Belcogen has been operating at a loss; Ortega says that he does not believe it to be so.
ALFREDO ORTEGA
“I think that BSI has not been acting on good faith because if they were to think about this of what they are saying now, they want to place the ball on our ball court; when we started this thing and we told them since December that we want to finalize this thing before the start of the new season and now that they have seen that we have reached to this point not finalizing this negotiation, we know for a fact and because we did not want our farmers to lose and not wanting the industry to lose, that is why we told them very clear from the very beginning of the negotiation, let us finalize this so that when the time comes for the new crop to open, we can move on hand in hand for the betterment of the upcoming crops. I don’t know why they are saying now that we will lose; all of us will lose but we will lose because of their negligence on coming to the table and negotiate a benefit out of the bagasse for the farmers.”
ARTURO CANTUN
“Mr. Carballo said this morning that in the last two years, Belcogen has lost 12.6 million dollars in operation of Belcogen; do you think it is feasible right now to be asking Belcogen to consider helping the cane farmers with something?”
ALFREDO ORTEGA
“How could I believe that if he has not come to the table with the papers on hand and showing us; that is what we have been asking of them. We have presented a written proposal to them and why is that we believe that the farmers should be getting this portion of the bagasse and up to now they haven’t come to us; it isn’t until today that I hear that have been losing on the bagasse. What we know is that they are getting payment for the electricity sold to Belcogen and for the first year when they encountered a huge problem, they managed to get 11.5 million dollars and on the second year, they managed to get 21.5 million dollars; so, how now they will come and tell us that for the past two years they have been losing? They didn’t present facts or numbers to the media today? So it is important for them to come to the table and show us where they are losing, why they are losing and what is causing them to lose. He mentioned about the bagasse that is there that is unreasonable; it is unusable if they say so, he spoke about the value but that bagasse can be used for other issues and I think they are using that to benefit themselves but that is another issue. Really, as a representative and as a part of the negotiating team, I don’t believe that they are losing for the past two years because they haven’t come to the table with the books or with the numbers at the table.”
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