Fertilizer Costs Surge, PM Blames Global Fuel Spike

Shifting from the national budget, we turn now to agriculture, where production costs are poised to climb sharply. Rising fertilizer prices are putting new pressure on Belize’s farmers, and tonight Prime Minister John Briceño is pointing to global fuel costs as the driving force behind the spike, something he says the country has little power to control. Briceño explains that anything tied to oil will continue getting more expensive, leaving Belize to manage a problem it didn’t create while still finding ways to support both farmers and consumers.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Well we know all of that, everything that has to do with oil is going to go up. As it is right now we can just hope and pray that this war is going to come to and end very quickly so that prices can begin to stabilize. Prices are going to start to go up and there is nothing we can do about it. We have to see how best we can operate in a situation that we did not create, a situation we cant control. We are a small player and we have to be able to find that balance to help our farmers and citizens.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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