Prime Minister Briceno Hopes to Avoid Sugar Impasse

As the start of the sugar crop looms, the government is working urgently to avoid yet another showdown between the cane farmers and the factory. The two sides have not signed an agreement yet for the upcoming sugar season and have meetings scheduled for December sixteenth. Prime Minister John Briceño has now taken direct control of the government’s role in managing the industry, with Minister of State Osmond Martinez directly engaged with stakeholders on a day-to-day basis. This was a responsibility previously held by former Agriculture Minister José Abelardo Mai. Briceño says the shift was necessary because Mai had become too emotionally entangled in the disputes. The Prime Minister now believes his own temperament and neutrality are what the sector needs to steer both sides away from an impasse. Here’s how he explains the decision and the work underway to keep the industry stable.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“I was always reminding him obviously, you’re not the minister for BSCFA, you’re the minister for the industry. So you have to represent not only the farmers, but even the millers and the government. So you have to be able to manage all of this. And so he felt that he was too emotionally involved in all of this and constantly going at BSI-ASR. And I felt that maybe being in my backyard, probably I maybe should take it over. And I understand the issues probably I’m not as good as him in it, but I do understand enough and have the temperament to be able to deal with all the parties. And as you notice right now, things are calm. We’ve been working with him, we are moving the industry forward. I am the one – we interface and I have again Minister of State Osborn Martinez to do the day-to-day interface with the cane farmers. So last week, I think it was last week, yes, we had a – I attended a meeting with the BSCFA with SIRDI, which is the cane farmers associations and the Ministry of Agriculture and also the Ministry of Sugar and the millers. A long meeting went on for several hours to discuss all of the issues addressing the challenges that we’re facing. So once you do the day-to-day, I am the one that actually really involved in the activities of the sugar industry.”