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U.S. Sugar Rival Files Complaint Against Everglades Deal

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The Associated Press

Published: December 12, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH - A major competitor of U.S. Sugar filed a complaint alleging its $1.34 billion dollar deal to sell the state land won't advance Everglades restoration and only lines the pockets of U.S. Sugar, a spokesman for Florida Crystals said Friday.

Florida Crystals filed a motion in Palm Beach County Circuit Court opposing the financing of the project that allows the state to purchase nearly 300 square miles of farmland. U.S. Sugar would be allowed to lease back the farmland at $50 per acre annually for seven years before turning it over to the state.

The South Florida Water Management District must now approve the contract.

Officials want the land to clean water and restore natural flow to the Everglades, long polluted by farming and development.

Florida Crystals said they spent months negotiating with the state to buy some of the assets the state would gain from U.S. Sugar, but the deal suddenly changed, according to Gaston Cantens, vice president of corporate. Florida Crystals is owned by the Fanjul family of Palm Beach and is one of the largest competitors of U.S. Sugar.

"The current deal will jeopardize legitimate and planned projects to improve water quality and flow thereby delaying Everglades restoration for years, and it will put farmers in the EAA at a competitive disadvantage by allowing U.S. Sugar to lease back the land it sells at below market rates and with a right of first refusal," the company said in a release.

Some lawmakers have also voiced concerns about making the deal while the state was in the midst of an economic crisis and cutting services to citizens.

"They've chosen to go all out in their opposition to Governor Charlie Crist's bold vision of Everglades restoration," U.S. Sugar Vice President Robert Coker told The Palm Beach Post. "They've clearly done so on the premise that anything that's good for U.S. Sugar is bad for the Fanjuls and the heck with everybody else."

A telephone call to U.S. Sugar from The Associated Press was not immediately returned after house Friday.

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