Shipping delays and bad weather are what caused the recent shortage of onions countrywide last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but this weekend onions will be available. Earlier this week the Belize Marketing Development Corporation imported one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of onion from Holland and an additional one thousand three hundred pounds are expected to arrive tomorrow. This type is known for its month long shelf life unlike the Mexican onions that were good in stores for only two weeks.
According to BMDC Managing Director Roque Mai, because onions are seasonally produced in Belize, each year from June to January, BMDC imports onions. While there is no price control on onions in Belize the BMDC says consumers should not be paying more than two dollars per pound within city limits and not more than two dollars and twenty five cents in the districts.
But from the prices we’ve heard about that is more fantasy than reality. Today Mai explained why no one should be paying more than what is required for a pound of onions. How much is that? He told me this morning.
Roque Mai, Managing Director – BMDC
“Here at Marketing Board the price that comes out from Marketing Board
is $1.24 a pound and then to the wholesalers it is $1.44 and then to the retailers it is $1.64 and to the shop it should be at $1.84, the price, but there is a situation that many people take advantage of where it is beyond our control. Again whenever it comes out from Marketing Board and then it goes out there they can put their price. Onion does not have a price control and we can’t do anything about it.
But what we decided this morning is that our people who are the wholesalers who purchase from us, we are advising them or asking them or pleading to them that please if they get it at $1.24 here at the Marketing Board, sell it at $1.44 and then so the retailers can sell it at $1.64. There are some retailers that buy directly from Marketing Board and then they go and sell it to the market and they are some that go and buy to the market and then sell it to the shops directly. When we talk about shops we are talking about the supermarkets. You can find it at the supermarkets, it should be at $1.84 or $2. The price range, we are adequate with, we are happy with is $2, not above that. Above that is unreasonable. It is unreasonable.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
But there is nothing your office can do because there is no price control.
Roque Mai,
“Yes there is nothing we can do but we are informing the public that they shouldn’t pay over two dollars a pound for onions.”
Depending on weather conditions, Saturday’s shipment of onions should be cleared by Tuesday and made available to the markets on that same day. If the laws of supply and demand apply, the glut should drive down prices.
