_{Photo: Headquarters of Northern Fishermen Cooperative Society Ltd. on North Front Street, Belize City}

PM: GoB working with Central Bank regarding credit issues of largest fishermen cooperative

BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 10, 2024

Going into the weekend, there was a 7 News report that the Belize Bank is looking to foreclose on the largest fishermen cooperative in Belize, the Northern Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, due to a non-performing $11 million loan. The bank, according to those reports, has left the Cooperative out in the cold by cutting off its overdraft facility, which would mean that the entity will be in problems when time comes this week to meet payroll. Also, with the development coming so close to the opening of the lobster season at the beginning of next month, it makes for an even dicier situation, as payments will have to be made to its over 700 members for their product.

Since the initial report, it appears that mum’s the word, as almost all authorities we have reached out to have preferred to remain silent on the matter. Only the Prime Minister commented to Amandala this afternoon that they are working with the Central Bank of Belize “to find a solution.” That’s because the report is that the Cooperative enlisted the Holy Redeemer Credit Union (HRCU) to take over the debt under more manageable terms, but there is concern there for the protection of HRCU members, given the Cooperative’s negative credit history. In fact, one unconfirmed but reliable report is that the HRCU has “bailed out” the Cooperative before. In light of this, our reports are that the Central Bank is not greenlighting the debt transfer. It is left to be seen whether the solution the Government is trying to broker may still involve the HRCU. We note that back in 2007, Amandala reported on the restructuring of a DFC loan for Northern Fishermen Cooperative. On that occasion, it was reported that Northern had to dispose of assets that were outside of its core fish and seafood processing business and also committed to “tighten up on its efforts to recover loans made to many of its close to eight hundred members.” Before that, in 2004, Northern had also come under fire over reports of large unsecured loans and salary advances reportedly made to committee members and key employees. It was also accused of running up large overdrafts at high interest rates.

Today, when we called the Cooperative (which is managed by Robert Usher), we were only able to get confirmation that this latest report of credit issues is in relation to Northern.

The Belize Department of Cooperatives falls under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, and all the Registrar of Cooperatives, Gareth Murillo, would say to Amandala this afternoon is that they hope that later in the week they would be in a better position to comment on the situation. Minister Jose Mai told us he is out of the office and has yet to be briefed on the matter.

The Cooperative has three landing sites for fishers: one in the north, another in the south, and a third at its headquarters in Belize City located along North Front Street.

Today, when we spoke with one fisherman about the potential ramifications for them as members, he told us that one impact would likely be a less competitive price for lobster. He also commented that last year, they were told they would receive a certain price per pound of lobster, and then it was reduced by two dollars. In essence, if Northern is facing financial difficulties, it might be unable to pay its members a higher price.