Agriculture Minister Explains Produce Price Swings

If you’ve been to the market lately, you’ve probably noticed that prices are all over the place. One week it’s lettuce, the next it’s tomatoes, and shoppers are left wondering what’s going to cost more next. Well, the latest Consumer Price Index report sheds some light: lettuce prices have jumped by as much as eighteen percent compared to this time last year, while tomatoes have actually dropped by thirty-three percent. So, what’s behind these swings? We put that question to Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“There are many  there are many things that account, depends on where we’re sourcing. If we’re sourcing from which state? Mexico is a huge country and the Central de Abasto is in Mexico Iztapalapa. Lettuce tomatoes, everything reaches there from all over the state, all over the Republic of Mexico.  And some states may have a cheap at one time, some may have it expensive, whether in some other states may be not approved, not good for them. And so the product is expensive. And so it varies, but many factors may cause increase in price of lettuce and other vegetables.”

 

Reporter

“And it also showed that the price of tomatoes were down by thirty three percent when compared to June of last year. What accounts for these large fluctuations year to year?”

 

Jose Abelardo Mai

“If the weather is good for us, Belize, we never import tomatoes. It is ninety-nine local consumption. At times, you will find tomatoes that sells at three dollars a bucket. At times we’ll find it at twenty-five dollars a bucket, right? It depends on the weather. Sometimes we  plant tomatoes,  and right now it climate change, the weather is so unpredictable, it varies a lot. So you plant today, you didn’t expect rainfall. You’re already harvesting, the rains come down damages tomatoes, the price goes up, right? And so there are many factors, but climate is most important factor here.”