Who Is Driving Up Prices at Michael Finnegan Market?

Shoppers are paying more for food, but many vendors at the Michael Finnegan Market say they are taking home less. They blame rising wholesale prices from the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation, which they say leave them caught between keeping food affordable and earning enough to survive. As customers tighten their budgets and sales slow, vendors warn that staying in business is becoming increasingly difficult. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports from the market, where frustration is growing alongside the cost of food.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

“What’s the cost of a pound of potato? The value is not in what you pay, but what these vendors are able to take home as a profit to make ends meet”

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #1, Michael Finnegan Market

“And deh yah duty looking, stinking potato weh marketing board the sell wih. Unu need to deal with them and denya cow price.”

 

Vendors at the Micheal Finnegan Market are facing a dilemma. Vendors say wholesalers have recently raised the price of produce, forcing them to pass the added cost on to shoppers. And they say it all begins with the prices set by the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation.

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #2, Michael Finnegan Market

“For instance you invest two hundred and fifty dollars for a sack of potato that is sixty-five pounds. If you do the math, that is like three dollars a pound for potato. That is what we are paying. We can only sell it for three fifty. If you do the math, you are investing two hundred and fifty dollars on potato and you only the make thirty-seven dollars. That is no investment. The white onion is like four dollars a pound. You have to sell these for four dollars for you to make a money off it. You know how long I have these out here all day. So whole day I nuh sell a sack of potato and onion.”

 

Paul Lopez

“What happen if you take up your price?”

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #2

“If I take up my price, nobody will stop and buy from me.”

 

According to the vendors, BMDC has been selling produce to wholesalers at increased prices. Wholesalers raise their prices to market retailers, and ultimately, shoppers are left paying the difference.

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #1

“We can’t help pay our lee rent, because everything the go back to the marketing board. The government is taking back everything from us.”

 

Paul Lopez

“So what are the customers saying when you hit them with that prices?”

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #1

“Well, some of them walk right away and leave us. They say it is too expensive.”

 

When we spoke with a wholesaler at the market, fingers were pointed at the marketing board and its prices.

 

Voice of: Market Wholesaler, Michael Finnegan Market

“We use to have the permission to bring in onion, cabbage, carrots, everything imported, we never use to have that price. Now how marketing board take over they have a higher price. Like how we do wholesale and retail we still buy from the marketing board, but we have to sell at least five dollars more. If we the pay two twenty-five for the onion and only bring sixty-five pounds, we have to sell it for two thirty. To get the stuff all the way at marketing board we have to burn gas, this that. Like people she f**k after this we won’t eat. And it is true, because you see the cabbage, four dollars a pound, when cabbage reach deh?”

 

Frustration is growing at the Michael Finnegan Market, where vendors and wholesalers blame the government-linked marketing agency for the rising prices.

 

Voice of: Market Vendor #2

“Briceño and deh bally sit down and talk a whole lot of r**s, but they don’t give a f**k about nobody. Deh bally just the lie and lie and lie to the people and we pickney and grand pickney deh the pay. Deh bally dah liars, cause deh nuh the worry bout we. Deh the worry bout deh self.”

 

As food prices continue to rise, vendors warn that the real cost is not only what consumers pay at the counter, but what struggling families and small businesses are being forced to endure. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

 

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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