Sweet Deal?

The reason why we are living here in Belize is a sweet one. Michel is working as a consultant for the European Union to support the Belize sugar sector. For many years, the EU and the so-called ACP-countries (African, Caribbean and Pacific countries) have had a mutually beneficial relationship established in the sugar protocol. This agreement, which dates back from the seventies, stipulated a guaranteed access to the European market of fixed quantities of sugar cane for a certain minimum price. Sugar accounts for 60% of Belize’s agricultural production so you’ll know how important it is for this small country.

You will also understand that this is a kind of protection measure and that not everyone is happy with that. Other sugar-producing members of the World Trade Organization, such as Brazil and India, as well European sugar beet producing countries, saw their sugar prices decline and started to complain. This has lead to the ending of the EU-ACP sugar protocol in 2006. As a kind of compensation, the EU waived its magic wand, did a little hocus pocus and voila.., there was 48 million euros to upgrade the Belize sugar sector, which is known to have one of the lowest levels of efficiency in the world while the price per ton had been slashed by 36%.

It is Michel’s job to advise the Ministry of Agriculture on how best to spend that money. Part of it has to be invested in infrastructure (roads, equipment) and part for improving production methods and diversification. There are about 6,000 cane farmers in northern Belize, and as you can imagine, they don’t all have their nose in the same direction (as we say in Dutch). When I had just arrived here in February, the cane farmers were on strike and rioting against the police. One farmer even got shot dead! In this peaceful country?

The same can be said for the Ministry people, and other sugar stakeholders. They all have different ideas on how to spend the money. They all know what the other should do. Combine all of the above with a general Caribbean attitude of all talk and little action and you have a guy coming home in the evening answering my question ‘How was your day, honey?’ with the usual: useless. Not so sweet after all. But he does not give up easily so we’ll see what happens in a few months. To be continued.