HONDURAS BANS SUGAR IMPORTS.

Honduras said it would ban sugar imports to protect local producers who are expecting a production surplus in the 2000-2001 harvest, reports Reuters (March 16, 2000):

"The president is very worried by the sugar imports and issued a strict order that we cannot keep importing sugar," said Trade and Industry Minister Oscar Kafati. He spoke after two days of meetings with sugar growers, producers and industry experts on the issue of importing some 40,000 46-kg bags of Colombian sugar. More than 100 sugar workers and producers held up the Colombian sugar imports at the local Pacific port of Henecan on March 11, arguing that domestic production made the imports unnecessary and that the Colombia product was of inferior quality;

Honduras expects to produce 6.7 million 46-kg (100 lb) bags of sugar in the 2000-2001 crop, of which some 5.2 million are destined for the local market and 250,000 will be exported to the U.S. "We have a surplus of more than a million 46-kg bags of sugar that will have to be sold in the country...President Carlos Flores' decision favors the 120,000 people living from sugar production," said Fernando Fiallos, the president of the Sugar Producers' Association.