Cabinet Approves New Regulated Sugar Prices and Ends Retail Price Controls

Cabinet in its weekly meetings made several decisions in the national interest…among them Cabinet considered “the pricing of regulated plantation white sugar and brown sugar for industrial products, including consideration of the freight distance in the establishment of prices, and approved the establishment of regulated prices and the removal of price control for retail labelled packaged sugar”. LOVE NEWS contacted Chairman of the Sugar Industries Control Board, Marcos Osorio who said in 2001 brown sugar had its last increase and in 2016 government approved an increase for Plantation white sugar. Therefore, much time has passed and there are other factors affecting the sustainability of the industry that must be considered.

Marcos Osorio, Chairman, Sugar Industries Control Board: “In anyway, there will be some benefit to the cane farmer which is so dearly needed and deserved at this time given all the challenges being faced to produce sugar at this time given climate and as I said earlier and pests.”

The Control price of sugar serves as a guardrail against merchants who take every opportunity to fleece consumers. LOVE NEWS told Osorio that to have the market dictate the cost of sugar, a local staple puts consumers at the mercy of shopkeepers. 

Marcos Osorio, Chairman, Sugar Industries Control Board: “Once control of prices are removed, then we know what the real situation will be when our local consumers go to the supermarket to buy a pound of sugar. At the same time, we foresee that in terms of packaged um white sugar labeled as retail packaged sugar, consumers may not have access to that sugar anymore.  It might simply just be removed because it’s an added cost to the supermarket to re-bag that sugar. And then if there is packaged sugar, then the easiest thing is to go to packaged sugar. And then at the end of the day, it’s the local consumer that may suffer or see it as somehow unjust. But again, I think government is considering the adjustments, and I think that is the reason a decision has not been made, because I think there is further need to analyze the situation to ensure that the local consumers do not end in paying more than they should.”

We’ll wait for the government to approve the establishment of regulated prices and we’ll inform you. As it relates to public infrastructure, Cabinet gave the greenlight for two large-scale maintenance contracts for bridges in the Belize River Valley, namely the Mussel Creek Bridge and the Bermudian Landing Bridge. It will support a National Intellectual Property Strategy for Belize. A committee will be established to provide formal policy oversight to ensure that the strategy meets domestic needs and international standards. The committee will have representations from the government, private sector, academia, and civil society. 

Cabinet also approved funding for essential maintenance of existing Solid Waste Management facilities and to operationalize the Orange Walk and Corozal transfer stations. And finally, on the advice of the Attorney General, Cabinet instructed that the Police file involving the alleged kidnapping of Ryan Joseph Budna be turned over to the Director of Public Prosecutions for action.