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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2005 
Sugar Cane Growers Put Pressure On Fox
 The Herald Mexico and Wire reports
| | More than 15,000 sugar cane growers marched in protest through Mexico City. (Photo: AP) |
The fields were alone Wednesday in much of the country's sugar cane producing regions, while the capital's traffic was snarled by a large protest march by sugar cane growers.
At least 15,000 growers left their crops behind to come, machetes in hand, to the capital to voice objections to President Vicente Fox's promised veto of a new law providing support to the sector.
The initiative, approved by Congress, would boost sugar cane production and sales through state-supplied support and incentives. Sugar growers say the measure is their only way of surviving in the face of cheap fructose imports from the United States, while Fox says the law hinders competition.
"Our fields are fertilizing right now, the sugar cane is growing, but our livelihood is threatened and we had to come to put pressure on the president," said Edilberto Carreón Guzmán, a representative of a growers organization from Veracruz.
In a press conference Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga acknowledged the pressure growers felt from foreign competition, but called on them to bring their complaints to the negotiating table, not the streets.
"This is not about pitting forces against one another. It's a time for all aspects of the sugar producing sector to work together to assure equal treatment, fair distribution of payments, stability for growers, as well as competition and investment in the industry," he said.
Mexico's sugar industry employs 270,000 cane growers and 130,000 workers, including cane cutters. An estimated 3.5 million people in many of the most isolated parts of the country rely indirectly on the sugar sector for their income.
Growers from most of the 15 sugar-producing states, backed by two powerful labor unions, demanded that Fox sign the bill, which guarantees continued upfront payments for cane from sugar-mill owners. The Sugar Cane Sustainable Development Act was passed by Congress 312136 last month.
Mexican sugar production has long been a source of tension with the United States, which produces large quantities of fructose often selling at a lower price than sugar. Fructose is a derivative of corn, and is used in the soft drinks avidly consumed by Mexicans.
Fox has said the bill is designed to keep in place outdated and protective policies that will bankrupt the debt-burdened, sugar-growing sector. Carreón said small growers believe Fox's objections to the law hide his real interest, which is protecting multinationals. He mentioned Coca-Cola, of which Fox was a top executive, as a major purchaser of fructose.
Carreón explained that in order for small producers to survive, they need to be able to negotiate together with the mill owners. Upfront payments give the collective 80 percent of the value of their harvest within 15 days of delivery to the mill. The remaining 20 percent is paid based on the market price obtained by the mill once it sells the processed product.
Without the law, "small growers will be ruined," Carreón said. "It would be a major social disaster."
He said the law helps communities improve their standard of living by regularizing income, allowing the collectives to invest in equipment, fertilizers, and researching more effective farming methods. |
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