Belmopan, Belize 18 February – Representatives from Banks Holdings Barbados which are minority shareholders in the Citrus Products of Belize Ltd. (CPBL) left Belize yesterday empty handed after attempting to diffuse growing tensions over the Barbados company's refusal to allow the Citrus Growers Association (CGA) to appoint their share of directors to CPBL's board of directors.

The Belize CGA are majority shareholders in CPBL (51%) but cannot appoint their full complement of five out of the eight directors under the terms of an investment agreement with Banks Holdings. The dispute has an added dimension in that the board in control at CPBL is refusing to pay dividends this year citing operating losses. But CGA members say this is a strategy to bankrupt shareholders and force them to sell out control to the foreign company. The CGA is further accusing Banks of trying to break the  association by luring away big growers by suggesting that big growers should have more votes in contrast to small growers.

The dispute came to a head on Tuesday of this week when representatives sent a team headed by Banks Holding Chairman Sir Allan Fields to Belize to seek an audience with Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The citrus growers of Belize launched a protest that had the participation of up to 3,000 citrus growers and workers in the Pomona Valley of the Stann Creek district – the heart of Belize's citrus belt.

In comments published in Belize newspapers today Prime Minister Barrow stated that "We will not allow the CGA to fail. Government of Belize stands behind the CGA's position of one man – one vote." He added that while the Belize government cannot interfere in the operations of a private company it has facilitated negotiations with the executives of CPBL and the Citrus Growers Association.

The Prime Minister further stated that government met with each side separately and jointly in mediation and consultations but those meetings failed. He ended by saying that government may soon have to legislate on the matter, but for now, government cannot interfere in the operations.

CPBL has greatly modernized its factory and installed a state of the art Tetra Pack facility with a one million gallon juice storage facility. It has currently moved away from exporting citrus concentrate, to selling packaged value added juices under various labels to the Caribbean and Central America. It reportedly is in talks with Minute Maid and Tropicana to provide citrus juice and squash to these companies. The company is also using citrus byproducts to produce pelletized animal feed.