With the prospects of the citrus industry being restored to some type of normalcy, the three major shareholders in the embattled agro industry met today in the Cabinet Room in Belmopan to continue discussions in an effort to move past the contention in the industry that forged a debt crisis that almost brought citrus production to a screeching halt.

Representatives of the Citrus Growers Association (CGA), the Citrus Products of Belize Ltd. (CPBL) and the Barbadian-based Banks Holdings Ltd. sat with members from the relevant financial institutions along with Government officials for about five hours to certify that all parties are in fact on the same page in terms of agreeing on a way forward in the best interest of the industry.

Growing tension between majority shareholders, CGA, and minority shareholders, Banks Holdings, in the recent past eventually reached a point where the Government of Belize (GOB) felt that their intervention was warranted, and yesterday the Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Barrow, staged a press conference in Belize City where he announced a major financial bailout, in the range of $15 million, to urgently fix a cash flow crunch that has been crippling the industry, and to pay citrus growers for their fruit deliveries – for which payments have backlogged.

The only faction that was not present at the press conference was Banks Holdings, whose CEO, Anthony King, flew in later that afternoon for a 2:00 p.m. meeting with the Prime Minister.

The meeting today, though, included King, and when he emerged at its conclusion, he told the media that considerable progress has been made, since all parties are in agreement with the framework that has been put in place.

King said, “We’ve had a meeting to get a resolution to move forward and I think we’ve achieved that. So, I think everyone is quite content that we found a way forward, certainly Banks Holding is, and the meeting also had to engage in discussion regarding some working capital support and financing for the company, so the time we spent in the meeting wasn’t all about matters between the CGA and ourselves; it was also about the company and I think we appeared to have satisfactorily resolved the interim financing [issues] as well.”

The Chairman and CEO of Banks Holdings also responded to criticisms which have been levied by the CGA in which they allege that Banks Holdings has repeatedly used its veto power – granted via CPBL’s Investment Agreement – to stall resolutions that have been made by CPBL’s Board of Directors for years.

King replied, “Well, I don’t believe that we have ever used that, certainly, for the impediment of the company or the interest of the company. We have had this disagreement on a couple of issues, but under the new arrangements there is another Board and I think that the arrangements we have agreed upon on the structure, the Board is very likely to not present that as a problem or a need for us to use going forward.”

Minister of Natural Resources and Agriculture, Hon. Gaspar Vega, who chaired the meeting in the absence of the Prime Minister, informed reporters of the progress that has been made. He stated, “I think it was extremely productive. We ended up getting all members of the industry to shake hands, to realize that we have to be together to get the industry to move forward. We made some changes; an MOU is being prepared and it should be finalized tomorrow. But all parties agreed so far to the MOU that is being prepared, where we are going to be having some changes on the structure of the Board of Directors. We are getting two members from CGA, two from BHL, one from Social Security Board, one from Heritage Bank and one from GOB.”

Apart from the restructuring of CPBL’s Board, small farmers will be glad to know that they can now look forward to receiving their outstanding payments, which, according to Vega, was made possible through the short term acquisition of CPBL’s loan facility by GOB.

He said, “We had to come up with some $4 million on a secured loan for CPBL so that small farmers can be paid for their fruit that is being owed presently. FCIB agreed on the selling out of the debt that they own at a discount price and that should be taken care of or finalized, we are expecting within 4 weeks.”

According to Citrus Mutual’s Executive Director, William Bowman – who also spoke with reporters – the only unresolved matter is a stalemate between CGA and Banks Holdings regarding lawsuits and counter lawsuits that they filed against each other in terms of the Investment Agreement.

Although the parties agreed to suspend the lawsuits in the meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Vega explained that neither was willing to drop the cases as yet.