The start of the 2009 - 2010 Sugar Cane Crop has been delayed by at least two weeks; and even though the new start date announced is this Wednesday, it appears that trouble is brewing again in the sugar industry. A press release sent to the RSV Media Centre this afternoon announced that a group of concerned cane farmers belonging to the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association from the Corozal district met on Sunday to discuss various issues which they claim are confronting the Association. These include alleged corruption, political interference and bankruptcy. As a result of Sunday's meeting, the release from the group of concerned cane farmers says that a new association was formed under the umbrella of the St. Francis Xavier Credit Union from where the farmers have been getting financing, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and other financial benefits. The release says that the motion to form the new association was unanimously approved and a provisional committee was formed to guide and oversee the process of the formation of this new association. That provisional committee lists its nine members as: Vicente Canul from the Patchakan Branch; Lucilo Teck from San Victor; Andres Campos Cawich, San Narciso; Felipe Tzul, Patchakan; Jorge Cob, Louisville; Agustin Cortez, San Victor; Antonia Castaneda and Jose Luis Salazar from the Corozal branch and Victor Pena from the Louisville branch. The provisional committee has scheduled a meeting of the cane farmers of both the Corozal and Orange Walk divisions for this coming Saturday at the Ecuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico, in San Roman village, in the Corozal District. Saturday's meeting is set to start at nine o'clock in the morning, and will be to inform the cane farmers of the formation of the new association and to offer membership in the new group. The concerned farmers' press release ends by saying that the group sees the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding or of an accommodation agreement between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and the United Cane Farmers Association outside of the court system as a positive step towards making the Sugar Cane Industry more viable and stable.

LOVEFM