It had been rumored for weeks now and reports indicate that Nova Shrimp Farm at mile 13 on the Northern Highway was closed today. At 1:00 this afternoon the skeleton staff that remained on the compound following the closing of the season last month was asked to leave work and not return until Friday to collect their two weeks notice payment. This has been reported to us by employees we spoke to. While we were unable to get comment from company executives, one man who we did find in the area when we visited today is UDP Belize Rural North candidate, Edmund Castro. He today told us that the closure is bad news for many of his constituents.
Edmund Castro, Belize Rural North Standard Bearer (UDP)
"At least sixty to seventy five families from the Belize Rural North area will be out of a job. Couple of the people had called me earlier this afternoon and told me that they were informed to come and pick up their last check on Friday so with no new businesses in our area for our people to rely on to feed their families and so on, Nova was a friend was a very good thing for the people in the Belize Rural North area.
You have people from Sandhill that work at Nova, from Gardenia, Biscayne and all the way up to Crooked Tree. You have people in the river valley area from Burrell Boom all the way up to Rancho Dolores that works there. So that's a big big blow for the people in my area and I am very much concerned and we would like to see another business open up for somebody to do something so that our people can have gainful employment.
Today some of our people were informed that this is it. They were put out of the place at one o'clock which is really bad news for the first of the year. Some of these people have children going to school, primary school, sixth form and so on. How will they go now to get some type of employment to feed their families by the end of this week or next week. It is really bad for us."
Nova typically cuts staff at Christmas when the shrimp harvest is over and only keeps a few around to service the ponds and keep the factory operational. But now, even those have been sent home. What's the problem? While we were unable to confirm we understand that nova at Ladyville has been unable to service debt with local as well as international banks forcing them into closure.
