At a half hour before news time tonight, the 2013-2014 sugar cane grinding season came to a close. The final amount delivered was estimated at 1.213 million tonnes of cane, which produced approximately 123 thousand tonnes of sugar.

So, despite a rocky start to the season, the expected quota of 1.2 million has been exceeded, and this afternoon, 7News spoke with some of the cane farmers and factory owners about how the last few hours of delivery played out:

Belizario Carballo, CFO - BSI
"Up to this evening at 6 when the crop ends we have expect to have received 1,213,000 tonns of cane and we would have with that cane produce close to 123,000 tons of sugar. I think it has been a very good crop. I think that from all the indications we have had a good crop. We were certainly not expecting to have been able to take in this amount of cane given the very late start. As the country knows it was very unusual for the crop to start at the end of January when in fact the crop normally starts at the end of November or the first week of December."

Cane Farmer
"We have to wait a little while because the quota is finished and this an extra because we have so many cane in the field and I think we will left with so many canes in the field."

Alfredo Ortega - Vice-Chairman, Committee Of Management, BSCFA
"We have an amount of Orange Walk trucks that didn't reach yesterday, that they try to see if they can go in this afternoon. I really am satisfied that God gave us this time, at least for this past 12 days we have experience a good weather and that has given us the opportunity to deliver more of the cane that we believe would have stayed in the field."

Cane Farmer
"All the ripping groups have delivered the amount what they have and plus we have 4,000 tons of cane left in the field especially in the San Joaquin branch."

Alfredo Ortega
"Weeks from now, farmers will be getting their second payment and we will be getting estimates close to the second payment. At this point we have the last estimate that was $61.07 and all will depend what will be the estimate for the second payment because as you know from when we got the last estimate up to now our TCTS has increased, so the price that we thought we would have gotten wouldn't be possible because of the increase in our TCTS and then on the second Monday in November farmers will be getting that 3rd payment and that will cover this crop that we have delivered."

The cane farmers delivered approximately 135 thousand tonnes more cane than last year, but the factory owners have only been able to produce 3,000 tonnes more sugar than last year's amount. Both the cane farmers association and BSI agree that the quality of the cane was not as good as last year.

But what they still can't agree on is bagasse. The Farmers want as much as 4 dollars 51 cents as a payment for bagasse, but the factory owners are only prepared to concede a payment at this time of 51 cents.

In our interview last week with the Vice-Chair of the cane farmer's Association's Committee of Management, the suggestion was made that the factory owners are taking advantage of the farmers with such a low payment.

Today, we asked BSI's CFO, Belizario Carballo, about that criticism, and he responded that the farmers are disregarding the major investment that they've made to make bagasse a profitable business.

He told us that the company made an investment of 130 million dollars on new equipment for bagasse processing to produce energy, which is then sold to BEL for the national grid. According to Carballo is that though the farmers see it as only 51 cents per tonne of cane delivered, the company sees it at a total payment of 550 thousand dollars, which is being treated as an added cost to BELCOGEN, a company which hasn't started to make any profits:

Belizario Carballo, CFO - BSI
"We had agreed to expand the scope of the negotiations of a new agreement to include the negotiation for a payment for bagasse. All in that process we have highlighted to the BSCFA a number of key things; one of them is certainly that any payment has to be on a reasonable basis, has to be realistic, has to be based on certain principles; principles of equity, of viability, of reasonableness, of fairness, has to also acknowledge investments that were made and has to acknowledge the risks that were taken by BSI who made the investments and also have to acknowledge very importantly a return on those investments."

"Besides that, we have been very clear with the BSCFA that BELCOGEN as a business is not yet realizing a profit. We have come up with a methodology that we feel is viable and is fair and it amounts to a payment of $550,000. It is really a valuation of the amount of fiber that is used by BELCOGEN in generating electricity that is sold to BEL. Now, that's $550,000 which when express as a part cane basis is $0.51 per ton of cane. But for us it is $550,000 as an additional cost to BELCOGEN's PNL which as I mention before is not yet making a profit. It's an additional cost to a business that is yet to make a profit and the reason why BELCOGEN is not yet making a return and the shareholders and the ones who invest in BELCOGEN is not yet in a position to gain any return from BELCOGEN."

Daniel Ortiz
"The toughest critics from the cane farmers have suggested that BSI is taking advantage of the farmers - that's the basic perception."

Belizario Carballo, CFO - BSI
"BSI and particularly its investments and one of the big investments have been BELCOGEN at 130 million dollars. We have besides BELCOGEN invested about 50 million dollars more in the last 4-5 years in improving mill capacity, mill performance, mill extraction and all of those related factors and what I can mention is that all of those improvements/investments by BSI including BELCOGEN have resulted in us being able today to produce some 10,000 tons of sugar more in any one crop. Now the payment arrangements that we have with farmers directly 65% of the benefit of that additional sugar to the famers."

Daniel Ortiz
"So then, in light of all that, you would reject that perception or that notion that the company is taking advantage of the small farmers?"

Belizario Carballo, CFO - BSI
"Clearly because the company has invested to secure a future for the sugar industry and in particular for farmers and all of its investments since BELCOGEN 65% of the benefit is going directly to farmers."

Carballo also explained that both sides are negotiating a payment a payment for bagasse, not a price for Bagasse. He says that this is an important distinction because it means that based on the performance of the crop season, the amount paid to the farmers will vary, which means that it can increase or decrease.

He adds that the business model for BELCOGEN called for 1.27 million tonnes of cane to be delivered to the factory in order to sell their quota of electricity to the national grid. But, as we told you 1.213 has been delivered so far.

The Cane Farmers Association is rejecting BSI's counter proposal on the premise that the company is claiming that BELCOGEN isn't turning profits, but they refuse to release the most recent financial statements.

Channel 7