Potato Glut in Cayo: Miscalculation or Market Pressure?

Farmers in Cayo District are sitting on mountains of unsold potatoes, hundreds of thousands of pounds, to be exact. They say contraband imports are flooding the market and undercutting their prices. But Agriculture Minister Jose Mai isn’t buying that explanation entirely. He says the real issue might be a risky strategy that backfired: farmers holding onto their crops, hoping to cash in when supply runs low. Now, with prices falling and storage costs rising, the question is—was this a case of market manipulation gone wrong, or are farmers being squeezed by forces beyond their control?

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“Last week my chief agriculture officer and the director of extension met with these farmers from the five miles and seven miles in the Cayo district. At this point they are the only farmers with potatoes. But they have cold storage. I don’t agree with what they do, but I understand why they do it. These farmers store their potatoes and you sell at the end of the crop when nobody has, at a higher price. I think they did manage to balance it well. because you cannot force people to pay a high price. They met and said we have a contraband problem. Contraband has always been there. You have to manage it. Is it that much that you have to lose? BAHA, Supplies Control, Customs are out there and we have not seen much white potatoes on the market. We are telling them that we are controlling it. But storing your potatoes, holding it and raising it until the end of the crop at two dollars a pound is not cutting it for the consumer. The producer deserves the best, but the consumer also deserves the best in quality and price. I think that they missed calculated the time and we control the importation of this and how much is imported. They said hold down the importation until we could sell at two dollars a pound. Potatoes are selling in Orange Walk at one eighty, so when they met with my team we told them that you are selling at two dollars a pound when it is being sold for one eighty in Orange Walk. So the wholesale go to Orange Walk. They were selling at wholesale price at two dollars a pound. So a hundred pound sack was two hundred dollars. And so, I got a call this morning at one of them. I said, but its two dollars a pound and some of these people bought in Orange Walk and put it in a container and now selling at two dollars.”