Recently there have been personal attacks against me and attempts to discredit my honesty. I have done nothing wrong in the past, present nor will I do so in the future. My accuser claims that I bought some grower assets at very low prices. This is so far from the truth that it is twisted and dishonest.Here are the facts again, as it has been made public before.

In 2004 Citrus Products of Belize Ltd. offered many of its properties for sale. The offering was by tender only and made public through all the news media for a period of over two months. Very few tenders were received and only one from me for the Greenwich, Kitchen and Price Piece. These groves are mainly grapefruit, all of which were over fifty years old, some as much as eighty years and about one-third of the trees missing or dead. The price per box of grapefruit at that time was $3.84 or a loss of over $1.50 on every box produced. Nobody wanted G/F, especially old and dilapidated groves, at that time. The ?sour grapes? comments of Denzil Jenkins came later when the price changed for the better.

I tendered my bid in July 2004 and my offer was accepted in August 2004 by the Board of Directors of CPBL and the First Caribbean Int?l Bank who held a mortgage on the properties. A hurricane struck the South-West part of Florida in July 2004 and did create some loss to citrus, but mainly oranges.This did not affect the grapefruit price at all. What did affect the grapefruit price substantially were two more hurricanes that devastated Florida?s grapefruit producing area, but that did not happen until September of 2004 and for that, an act of nature that I certainly have no control over, I am now accused of buying a piece of grower property from CPBL for a giveaway price. That is very untrue and dishonest.

A senior manager in First Caribbean Int?l Bank has said to me, ?How can you be asked to pay more now because of a hurricane that happened after you concluded your purchase and for something that nobody wanted? That would be very wrong?.

At a later date the Board of Directors of C.G.A. Investment Company Ltd., and CGA Committee of Management looked into my purchasing of the properties and could find no wrong doing. These findings were all made public through the Amandala in their April 10th2005 edition.

It is my belief that being successful and getting lucky creates envy in some and that could lead to hate. I hope not. It is well known throughout the citrus industry for many years that Denzil Jenkins does not like William Bowman. That is fine with me but I say, ?Let us leave our growers and industry?s good name out of our personal dislikes and deal with each other instead?. Our ?Citrus Politics? is bad enough but we do have a thriving and successful industry that needs to be respected and protected for all and for our future. By the way, one of the properties that was offered for sale by CPBL is one that was owned and then sold to Belize Food Products Ltd. (BFP now CPBL) by their then Managing Director Denzil Jenkins for a price of BZE $767,000.00 on 3rdJune 1998. Other non-executive shareholders of BFP were not given a similar opportunity.

The asking price for that same property was reduced from the purchase price of $767,000.00, and then, further reduced to $200,000.00. There are no offers of purchase to date. Anyone interested? I am sure that an even better price can be negotiated. That $767,000.00 plus interest to date, (now easily over 2 million dollars) is part of the debt that growers through CPBL must now pay for. Where was his concern for growers then?

Sincerely,

William H. Bowman

Citrus Grower