The informal cattle trade through the west came to a screeching halt after COVID-19 became a pandemic. The former Minister of Agriculture worked to create a more formal system, but it still left cattle farmers with cows in the pasture and no market to sell them to. Well, the likely new Minister, Jose Mai, is telling farmers to start packing those cattle because the goal is to start selling as soon and as fast as possible.
Hon. Jose Mai - Area Rep, Orange Walk South "As we were driving up to Belmopan a while ago, I got some text asking us if they can export cattle and my response to them was yes, load the trucks and get the cattle out, we need to export 100 times more than what we have exported in the past. We need to generate foreign exchange earnings, we need to create employment, we need to generate income for families, for farmers, so my response to that is yes, the cattle can leave as early as this minute, that is our commitment to the farmers, that is our commitment to the private sector and we will honour it, the cattle must go."
Jules Vasquez "But trade is a 2-way street, you have to have a willing buyer and along to go with your willing seller. How do you sell to markets where there are border prohibitions?"
Hon. Jose Mai "Well Jules, we have been selling to Guatemalan market for 20 years, there has been no major restrictions on the Guatemalan part and if there are restrictions on the Guatemalan part, that is a Guatemalan problem, it is not the Belizean problem."
The informal trade has been ongoing for twenty years, but it took a pandemic for the Ministry to formalize the process.
