P.R. Laws tit. 5, § 376
The provisional liquidations of sugar corresponding to the growers shall be made fortnightly or monthly by the mill, as determined by the Department, or in its defect, for the liquidation period used during the immediately preceding year, taking as the value of the sugar for the liquidation thereof, the average price of the Puerto Rican sugar C.I.F. New York, corresponding to the fortnight or the month in which the cane was delivered. The mill may deduct from the average prices in the New York market for Puerto Rican sugar with 96-degree polarization, determined as prescribed above, those amounts it deems necessary to cover shipping and marketing expenses in all cases of growers that do not opt to receive their share in sugar as provided below; Provided, That when the grower deems the amount deducted by the mill for said purpose is excessive, he/she may request the Department to fix the amount that the mill shall deduct provisionally for such purposes, and the Department is hereby empowered to do so. Provided, further, That after a previous hearing for all interested parties, the Department may provide another liquidation system that is fair and reasonable.
Whenever the grower, before December 1 prior to the beginning of the grinding season, so notifies the mill, the latter shall be bound to deliver the total amount of sugar of 96 degrees pertaining to him in accordance with §§ 371—405 of this title and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
The grower who choose that their share of the proceeds of their cane be liquidated in sugar shall enjoy the right of storage in the warehouses of the mill until the 31st day of December following the grinding season during which said sugar was produced, without payment of any amount whatsoever for the enjoyment of said right, and they may withdraw their sugars from the warehouses of the mill in bulk or in bags, in which latter case the growers who so choose shall furnish their own bags and they shall put the sugar in bags on their own account, but the weighing of same shall be at the expense of the mill.
Each mill shall guarantee its grower up to the 31st day of December following the grinding season during which the sugar was produced, delivery to the purchasers of the total pounds of sugar of 96 degrees of polarization that may result from the sum of the participation of sugar of each grower, corresponding to a period or periods of liquidation during which each grower delivered to the mill canes to be processed into sugar. Any amount in dollars resulting in excess of said guarantees due to any difference in weight and polarization, as reported by the purchaser’s laboratories, shall inure to the benefit of the mill. Any amount in dollars in default of said guarantees due to any difference in weight or polarization, as reported by the purchaser’s laboratories, shall be reimbursed to the grower by the mill. In both cases, said payments shall be made in cash and not in sugar.
History —May 13, 1951, No. 426, p. 1138, § 7; May 28, 1970, No. 42, p. 104, § 1; Aug. 5, 1993, No. 43, § 14, retroactive to July 1, 1993.