BSCFA and BSI/ASR Mediations Weren’t a Total Fail

After several rounds of negotiation, with the assistance of attorney Julie-Ann Bradley acting as a mediator, the two entities still could not come to an agreement. Several factors contributed to this. One of the most important reasons is that both the farmers and the miller remain firm in their positions. However, BSI/ASR’s Finance Manager, Shawn Chavarria, says the sessions were not deemed a total failure as they were able to get a better grip on the issues each other faces. He adds that this will be very beneficial to future negotiations.

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, BSI/ASR: “Well we can’t get into the details of the mediation itself but certainly we weren’t able to achieve a long-term agreement through the mediation but I think it provides an opportunity for both sides to ventilate a lot of issues and try to see if we can get closer to an agreement and I think progress was made in that respect where we were able to narrow down the outstanding matters to a few items and so we’ll see if this upcoming year we can continue to engage with the BSCFA and see if we can reach a long-term solution.” 

Reporter: Based on those takeaways basically narrowing down the different points and trying to be see other’s point of view is BSI confident that a long-term agreement can be signed within the next calendar year? 

Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, BSI/ASR: “We would certainly be confident if there is good faith from both sides to reach that long-term agreement. From our standpoint we did put forward some solutions to address the matter of transparency, the concerns of BSCFA had in that respect and from our standpoint we do feel that we have some very credible proposals in front of them. But I think certainly from the discussions it has morphed into something that is bigger than just transparency and the numbers it’s dollars and cents and I think at the end of the day the core issue seems to be that the BSCFA want to be paid more for sugar cane.”