Jose “Pepe” Fanjul

Vice chairman/COO/president; West Palm Beach

Originally published May 2011

If you look at our lands, what water we receive is dirtier than the water we take from our lands. (Alfy): Our lands are on the south end of Lake Okeechobee. You can do all in the world you want underneath the lake and until you solve the problem of the water coming into the lake, you’re never going to solve the problem.

The true environmentalists, we have no problem with. And then we have the group I call the professional environmentalists. They like the problem because they’re making money out of it. We have some of them, for example, that have told us, after we go through the explanation of what we’re doing or not doing, ‘You guys are right, environmentally, but you’re the only deep pocket we can find, so that’s why we’re after you guys.’ When someone tells you that, well then, you worry.

I have a ranch here in Florida, nothing to do with the sugar business, where I ride. Quail shooting. To me it’s really peaceful to go out there. (Alfy): I like the ocean. My problem is that I’ve done so much out there in the Glades, that when it comes to the weekend, I’d rather if I can go on the water.

It’s going to be jobs, issue No. 1. I think in this country we have to somehow or other encourage American industry to keep jobs in America as much as possible.

I think we’re lucky the next generation is really good. Every generation has to do what it can. I’m not a believer in saying you have to be in the sugar business. Hopefully they will. If they want to do something else, they should do something else. You can’t rule from the grave, you know.

The way the (sugar price support) program is run is at no cost to the government. When people talk about the candy companies leaving the United States because of ... that’s all a bunch of hogwash. The price of sugar as part of a candy bar or anything like that is immaterial. The reason they’re leaving is because they’re paying someone in Mexico a fraction of what they pay someone in the United States and they have other advantages. It works as an anti-dumping program, basically, because it is subsidized in other parts of the world. One bank will take more than the sugar program has taken in its history.

Interview by Mike Vogel
Photo by Scott Wiseman

“We go back to 1851. Fifty years here. We started the Florida business from scratch.”

— Pepe Fanjul