Over the last few weeks there have been numerous complaints about the quality of plantation white sugar on the local market. Love News sought an explanation from the producers of the commodity, Belize Sugar Industries Limited.

John Gillett - Manager, BSI Factory
"That sugar that you are getting right now is left over from the last crop and yes we did have some technical problems with the soil clarifier and the soil clarifier was not taking out the amount of filler that it should have. That sugar there came some of the fibrous part or the fiber in the cane as such. We could have only taken out a certain amount however I can assure you that the sugar that is produced for this year will not of that same quality it is sugar that will be very very clean and customers ought not to have that complaint again."

Patrick Jones - Reporter
Mr. Gillett how safe is the sugars for people to consume you know at this time of the year everybody baking cake and making desserts for the Christmas holidays how safe is that sugar for consumption?

John Gillett - Manager, BSI Factory
"The sugar is safe it is only the fibrous part of the cane as I mentioned so that sugar is safe. All that you will be seeing there is a little bit of the fiber part settling or floating mostly to the top of the sugar whenever you dissolve it but it is harmless to the consumer."

Patrick Jones - Reporter
How much longer can the consumer expect to be getting this dirty sugar?

John Gillett - Manager, BSI Factory
"I would not say the sugar is dirty, I would change that word, I would say sugar containing fibrous material. We are down to below a thousand tons in that and I would say early in the new year all of that sugar stock will be depleted and the new stock of sugar will be on the market."

In related news, Gillett says the current sugar crop is right on schedule and expects another good production year.

John Gillett - Manager, BSI Factory
"And up to this morning we have milled just over a hundred thousand tons of cane. Nonetheless the quality of the cane is not as high as it was last year. Last year you would re call that the quality was extremely good, we had a dry period right round starting from October right through to November and December, and no doubt that enhance the quality of the cane. Nonetheless we are still optimistic that the quality will be improved and when it improves we expect that the sugar content will be there and we can extract the maximum amount of sugar. Up to this morning the comparative ton cane per ton sugar ration was 11.60 compared to 9.92 for last year. Everything is going extremely well at this time. We have had quite a number of outer staying hours as a result of the recent range that we have been getting. But the farmers are making every effort to deliver the cane of the required amount and the required quality which you would know with the purity of the cane they have very little control over it and the only thing they can do is chop off the cane as much as they can and reap cane from the fields that re of best quality so that is what the farmers have been doing and we expect to see better result as to what."

LOVEFM