Agriculture - Greater Belize Media

Why has the Price of Vegetables Gone up?

Heavy rainfall has hit Belizeans in more ways than one. In Northen Belize, excessive rains have resulted in flooding not only in residential communities, but also in the agricultural sector. Several fields of crops have been destroyed or delayed production, resulting in scarcity and high price increases. Produce affected include items such as tomatoes, cilantro and peppers. News Five’s Britney Gordon visited the Michael Finnegan market today to learn how this has affected Belizeans.

Britney Gordon, Reporting

If you, like many other Belizeans, purchase your produce locally, then you would know that Tuesday is market day. From as early as five a.m., dozens of customers flock to the stands at their local markets to hunt for the best deals. These days, however, the search has become significantly more difficult, as the prices of fruits and vegetables skyrocketed within the past week. We spoke with Florita Tzib, a vendor for the past thirty-eight years at the Michael Finnegan Market, to find out how her business has been impacted by the change.

Britney Gordon

“You sell habanero, which is something that went up recently. How have you found customers react to this?”

Florita Tzib, Vendor

“I really have a lot of customers and my customers sometimes them tell us why the price is so high so I tell them we can’t explain to you because sometimes we bring our product and sometimes the product we bring, we sell it different price and sometimes when we buy we have to sell it expensive just like how we buy it because we have to make our profit. And sometimes when we ask the person that sell it if them could put down the price and they tell me no that is the price and that is the price and they no bring the price not at all. So, when my customers come and ask, I explain to them why the product is so expensive because we buy. And when I bring my things then I sell it different.”

There are several products, such as tomatoes and cilantro, whose prices have seen a sharp increase. But it is the cost of habanero peppers, that are selling anywhere between twenty and thirty-five dollars per pound, that have left many pepper sauce lovers reeling. Colin Gillett, a frequent shopper at the market, says that it is in times like these, that he makes do without certain items.

Colin Gillett, Customer

“I buy tomato, cabbage, cilantro, the usual stuff and fruits that are in a season, but I don’t know if that’s due to the flooding, they make the items expensive, but my pay noh di go up. So if I think the item is too expensive for me, I just don’t buy it.”

There are several factors contributing to the increase in prices, namely the recent excessive rainfall, flooding across the country and a combination of fungi and insects. Minister of Agriculture Jose Abelardo Mai explained that while these are factors that contribute to a shortage every year around this time of year, the intensity of the rainfall has exacerbated the issue in the region.

Voice of: Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“At this time of the year, every year you have rainfall, you have fungus, you have bacteria. But this year, it is extremely hot and humid, and then excess rainfall one week after. So you have both extremes, and I’ve never seen it like this before. And that is what affected us, and now it’s an abrupt end of vegetables. You don’t see any vegetables. You see it last two weeks and now there’s none. And so it is very clear. It is very extremely strange, right? Not only to us in Belize, but even the Mexicans in the peninsula. But every year we have this type of problem, not as intense as this year. It’s expected that you will have a shortage of vegetables at this time of the year.”

To alleviate the severity of the issue, the ministry is currently working towards opening greenhouses across the country so that farmers will have an extra supply of produce when weather conditions damage their crops. Mai said that while this may not end a scarcity, it will minimize it.

Voice of: Jose Abelardo Mai

“We have issued hundreds of greenhouses throughout the districts, and this is where climate smart agriculture comes in. You have an alternative to production out in open fields. You have no greenhouses. So the greenhouses are supposed to kick in now to have your cilantro, to have your hot peppers, your sweet peppers, and a few cabbages. You don’t have a lot like you have open production, open field production, but you’re still supposed to have a little to supply the market.”

Britney Gordon for News Five.

B.S.C.F.A. Exposed to Environmentally-friendly Aro-products

B.S.C.F.A. Committee of Management Vice Chair, Alfredo Ortega told us earlier that around seventeen hundred canefarmers in the north have suffered losses so far by the flood waters, which represents roughly twenty-five percent of all canefarmers from Orange Walk and Corozal. The B.S.F.C.A. official is in Guadalajara, Mexico for a workshop on agro-science. Ortega will be back on Wednesday, as the workshop has been shortened because of the approaching Hurricane Beryl. He explained to us that the session is mainly to share information about products that could be beneficial for the farmers across the board.

Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, B.S.C.F.A.

“It’s more products that could be beneficial for the cane farming community, not only cane farming, but also all the agriculture sector, because these products that they are presenting to us right now are products that are really friendly with the environment. They’re mostly enriched with organic production, so they are more environmentally friendly and we’re seeing that if we start to use those products, then we can have better yields with the same varieties we have. And also our vegetable farmers or our green farmers can really benefit to have a better use in their production of the different vegetables that we can plant.”

Cane Farmers Suffer Major Losses in Recent Floods

Several villages in the northern districts have suffered quite a bit of losses to their homes due to flooding caused by recent rains. Over the weekend, videos showing floodwaters rushing through the low-lying villages painted a dismal picture. And while that is bad enough, there was also significant damage to cane fields in those districts. The tallies are still being conducted as farmers are just now returning to their cane fields to check on the extent of their losses. Today News Five’s Marion Ali stopped in Libertad Village, and spoke with the B.S.C.F.A.’s Libertad Branch Chairman, Estevan Villanueva about the damages.

Marion Ali, Reporting

This was how one farmer’s cane field looked when we visited Libertad Village today. All the investments that went into this work will be a loss for him and his family. We could not find them, but we found Estevan Villanueva, the BSCFA’s Chairman for the Libertad branch.

Estevan Villanueva, Chairman, BSCFA Libertad Village

“We have about 150 to 200 acres in flood. Okay. Apart, we have mature can that’s in flood and we don’t have a good road to, to come out to take out the, that can, that’s a loss right now. We don’t know if if the factory goes ahead and it makes good time after this, this time that is coming, we maybe we can take it or not. We will lose all of those cane.”

The access road to one of the cane fields looked like a river, with floodwaters streaming through. Villanueva told News Five that the floods also damaged the roads that were repaired.

Estevan Villanueva

“They try to fix it but right now with this flooding the current carries Gallaudet they don’t like if they don’t do nothing. When it’s flooded, everything goes to the to the lower part, it carries the dirt from the road and that breaks solid dirt alley road so that and make it harder to weed to take out cane and it costs a lot.”

Villanueva says that cane farmers absorb all the losses when their fields are inundated. He adds that what we saw in Libertad is just a small part of the damage suffered in the north.

Estevan Villanueva

“In Corozal we have like Caledonia, we have like San Victor, we’re nearby to San Victor, we have um, um, those two villages that have more than Damages on us like like Douglas branch, they are you have already have a bigger flood.”

Now with a hurricane staring at Belize at the end of this week, Villanueva says they are preparing for a bad crop.

Estevan Villanueva

“If more flood, we will have more damage, more losing of cane because, the water kills the cane and all those canes that is coming up, everything will die and we will have a bad crop next year if the flood comes.”

Marion Ali

“The hurricane –“

Estevan Villanueva

“Yes.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

Is the African Palm Oil an Industry for Belize?

It is the largest oil-producing plant in the world and earlier this year, Belize experimented with the idea of growing the nut that makes African Palm Oil as an alternative to naturally-produced cooking oils. Experts in the agriculture industry believed the African Palm Oil had great potential for Belize, and at a summit held late last year, Guatemalans in the industry had offered their advice to Belizean farmers on how to grow and manage the crop. This week’s edition of Belize on Reel takes a closer look at the African Palm Oil and found out that while it produces a very healthy cooking oil, the labour it requires for harvesting is a challenge. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

File: Jan 18, 2024: Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“I believe that one other option is African palm oil. Although the environmentalists have a little concern about it because in other countries when they planted African palm oil, they had to clear a lot of land. In this case, it’s not that, because the lands are very clear for citrus. It’s just replacing the dead orchards with another product.”

Marion Ali, Reporting

Back in January, the African Palm Oil industry showed a lot of promise. At an investment summit, Guatemalan agro producers shared their interest, expertise and knowledge with Belizean farmers who were previously involved in declining crops like citrus and bananas. But there hasn’t been much advancement since then to establish an African Palm Oil Industry.

Hugh O’Brien, Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture

“Belize so far, it’s not like any physical research has begun. We were at an exploration stage in terms of the African oil palm industry. The oil generated from the oil palm, from the African oil palm dominates just about between 33 and 34 percent of the oil market in the world, of the plant oil market, if I can call it that. You’re comparing it to soybeans, to sunflower and other oils that are used, coconut oil and so on. So it’s the biggest – it is the largest oil-producing plant in the world. It’s a plant that can produce 3,000 pounds of oil per acre.”

Aside from its economic potential, the product from African Palm Oil is considered among the healthiest naturally produced oils for cooking. In addition, it is also used in different types of cosmetics.

Hugh O’Brien

“You can export in its crude form, and there are other companies in the world that will buy that, and then purify it more, and use it in cosmetics, and consumption oil and facial creams and soaps and it’s a wide range of products that is produced from African Oil Palm.”

But why has the discussion on the product not gone past the exploratory stage? Advisor in the Ministry of Agriculture, Hugh O’Brien says there were some challenges that were identified that this crop would pose for Belize.

Hugh O’Brien

“We have not made a decision to go full scale ahead. We have not closed the doors on the opportunity, but based on how things are with our other industries, interest from our farmers we’re going to make that decision. It is just like coconut is, it does take an amount of labour to get the fruits harvested to manage your farm. All our industries are struggling right now. The papaya people are having challenges getting workers. The coconut farmers are having challenges getting workers. In fact, this year we’re going to be losing between 150,000 to 200,000 boxes of oranges because we have been unable to harvest it fast enough because of labour challenges.”

We visited a residence in Teakettle Village where African Palm Oil trees are grown but for decorative purposes only. Marion Ali for News Five.

DFC Embraces Equity Financing with Royal Mayan Shrimp Farm

On Wednesday, The Development Finance Corporation (DFC) held a ceremony in Belmopan to celebrate the signing of the Letter of Loan Offer with Royal Mayan Shrimp Farm Ltd. At the event, Raineldo Guerrero, chairman of the DFC, said “We’re celebrating because for the first time, the Development Finance Corporation has taken on equity financing as a major part of his portfolio. But what’s important is the significance of the steps that we have taken, both in the case of Royal Mayan Shrimp Farm and the development finance, that it wasn’t a simple process, it was a journey.”

Managing Director of Royal Mayan Shrimp Farm Ltd., Alvin Henderson said, “we’re very grateful for DFC’s partnership in this. I mean, we’re in a developing country. We’re not in a place where one accesses easily R&D. So many times the Research and Development is actually done with borrowed funds, and this is what makes it quite challenging. But in the case of DFC, they stood by us as we ran these important trials over the last two years in the field and that became very critical because the trials we have in the field, which is the basis of the investment that’s being made now, have been stellar.”

This partnership “comes out of the DFC’s new investment policy that we adopted or the board adopted as part of moving towards Green Climate accreditation. Green Climate Fund accreditation,” said General Manager of DFC, Henry Anderson.

Citrus Official Says Industry is Rebounding Gradually

The citrus industry has endured one of its most challenging periods since it was established over a hundred years ago. One agriculture official shared his thoughts with News Five that while the industry may not return to its glory days when it was one of Belize’s highest revenue earners, it is not going to die. Hugh O’Brien, who is the Program Officer for Citrus Diversification for the Ministry of Agriculture says that coupled with other problems in the past, one major challenge at the end of the last decade was citrus greening. But slowly, citrus is starting to perform better now than recent years.

Hugh O’Brien, Program Officer, Citrus Diversification, Min. of Agric.

“We’re going through a phase where Belize was hit hard by citrus greening back in 2009 and 2010 somewhere around there, and citrus greening had its impact slowly and our industry really started going downhill around 2013 or so. And production has been going down ever since. Last year was our worst year of production ever in a long, time, probably in about 50 or so years. Last year we did at the factory just over 300,000 boxes of oranges and grapefruit represents.”

Marion Ali

“How much of the best days?”

Hugh O’Brien

“Oh the best years we were at eight million boxes, so that’s about one third of a million boxes, so it’s one-twentieth of our previous production. Now suffice me to say, though that despite the fact that CPBL received 300,000 plus boxes, 323 if I remember exactly, or 330, both grapefruit and oranges, a new plant, Silk Grass Plant, began operation and they themselves received 40,000 boxes. So that’s the 330 plus 40 is 370. And then on the local market, we easily consume about 30 or 40, 000 boxes, so it takes us to about 400 and then Guatemala in particular, the trucks are passing because they don’t have any oranges. So all the orange juice that you drink in Melchor and Flores, at all of these resorts, is all coming from Belize’s oranges.”

C.O.I. Into Sugar Industry Hits the Ground Running

The Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry has begun its work. Hugh O’Brien, the Lead Coordinator of the Commission of Inquiry, informed News Five that the commission has met with B.S.I. He explained that the company has been very open to the process thus far. He further noted that the commission has also received a presentation from Santander and that they had scheduled meetings with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association today. Here is what he told us.

Hugh O’Brien, Lead Coordinator, Commission of Inquiry

“The ambience between the people that the commissioners have met, particularly, we’ve sat down, we spent a day and a half with BSI. That went extremely well. BSI was very, very open. They shared their ideas, information that they had with them and various components of the factory and how the factory operates and their overall program and their views for the industry in terms of what they see is needed for Belize from their perspective. And then the tour of the factory with BSI went extremely well. And then the following day, the second day they did a tour of field activities, BSI’s operations at the field level, their farms and the services that they are with a view from their perspective that they have in mind. That they can contribute towards helping to modernize the industry in Belize. The commissioners have not yet met with the association. This morning, in fact, while I was doing an interview there with CTV3 and their talk show, they are calling me because currently they are meeting with the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association at the SIRDE office in Buena Vista. The commissioners also yesterday did a complete, they received a presentation from Santander which have a very different structure and they’ve toured the Santander factory, and they also had a complete tour of the Santander fields of sugar cane. So, they’re getting a good view and a good handle of what is, what is occurring in Belize. Before that, they had presentations from the staff at the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute. They had a presentations and discussion with the sugarcane production committee because the way sugar is delivered in the north is very different than the west and is a very intricate system in the north because of the large number of small farmers and people battling to try to get their sugar into the factory. So, I have to say that both B.S.I. and Santander so far is going quite well.”

C.O.I. will Request Documents from Industry Stakeholders

As we have reported, the B.S.I. has placed on record that it cannot share proprietary and confidential information. O’Brien says that following their meetings with industry stakeholders, the commission will be putting together a list of documents that it will be requesting from stakeholders, including B.S.I. He noted that the commission operates with a degree of legal authority to request information it believes will assist them in their deliberations.

Hugh O’Brien, Lead Coordinator, Commission of Inquiry

“B.S.I. have made their concerns public. They’ve issued a public release. One of the statements that they have made, I will say categorically, is false. The commission has never changed its focus. The terms of reference of the commission of inquiry, it was drafted and there were concerns that B.S.I. raised. That’s when I kind of got involved and the prime minister asked me to, and I said, we’ve had discussions with B.S.I. They sent back recommendations from their standpoint, and we made adjustments to the terms of reference, but we never gave in to what B.S.I. wanted. The terms of reference was modified, tweaked, but has remained with the same initial structure. B.S.I. obviously is concerned in their view that some of the aspects that are required by the commissioners to do, for example, to look at costings of some components of the processing side, manufacturing costs, the bagging and those costs that are in B.S.I.’s view is a private arrangement between them and the cane farmers association and should not be subject to any external opinion and views because they have. That’s their territory. They might be correct, but legally speaking, we’ll see how that play out. But if the commissioners ask and they want to see that information, the commissioners, a commission of inquiry has great deal of power. And I think that’s why I probably, why it might not be wise for B.S.I. also to make public statements because let the commissioners make the request and let’s see if they, maybe if they don’t ask for it, who knows? So making the statements might be mute if they ask for it and you don’t provide it. Then we’ll see how that plays out in a in a legal scenario as far as I am aware right now the commissioners have taken a very different approach. They want it to be as participatory as possible. So that they understand quite well a bit different than other commissions of inquiry. Nobody will be taken to court and be charged and so on. So they understand quite well that they are really only putting together concrete recommendations. It will then be for the government of the day, whether it is P.U.P. or U.D.P. or whoever, which P for them to make the final decision, cabinet to make policy decisions and the house to make legal changes to the act.”

The commission has a deadline of November thirtieth to complete its report.

“It’s no surprise.” – P.M. on B.S.I.’s Position

Prime Minister John Briceño has also chimed in on B.S.I.’s firmly held position that it will not surrender confidential company documents to the commission. He says that it comes as no surprise; however, the commissioners that are empanelled are aptly qualified to carry out the inquiry into the sugar industry.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“Well I think any private company can make whatever statement they believe is in their interest and they’ve been saying it from day one that certain information they are not going to or are not prepared to provide. So it’s no surprise. What is important though is that the commissioners that we got are highly qualified and they are very skilled in what they are doing and they believe that they will be able to come up with a report within the allotted, I think it’s six months. They believe that they can do it before then.”

Is a Price Increase the Solution to Sugar Smuggling?

Last week, we asked the Minister of Agriculture if the cost of sugar will increase to compete with prices in neighboring Guatemala and Mexico. He told us that B.S.I. has been requesting the increase, but they have not provided any justification for it. So, the Cabinet is yet to decide whether it will take that route to combat sugar smuggling. Well, Hugh O’Brien, the Lead Coordinator for the Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry, believes that a sugar price increase is the perfect solution.

Hugh O’Brien, Lead Coordinator, Commission of Inquiry

“I mean the solution, the perfect solution to that will be a price adjustment, but that’s not an easy thing. And my own views on that is very different than a bit on the prime minister and my minister. To me, in my view, we should just allow sugar to be sold. Well, one, increase the price a little bit for the sugar that you have in the small bags. Plus this, what the Chinese man package and put in their small bags. And then you have, sugar that B.S.I. and Santander are allowed to produce and package nicely and properly labeled and have it with whatever stickers and beautiful coloring and whatever they want to put and have that sold for whatever price people are prepared to pay for it. Have two sugar in the local market that way there’ll be never be a sugar shortage.”