As for carrots and cabbage in particular, the exorbitant prices are the result of scarcity because vendors can only source them locally.
Short supply and high demand drives prices upwards, and, tonight, the vendors are making a plea to the Agriculture Ministry to allow the importation of these vegetables. Sebastian Nunez, who frequents the market everyday, acted as a spokesperson for the vendors.
Sebastian Nunez, Consumer
"The reason why the carrots is on another level of the price and the cabbage, the vendors in the market are complaining to me that they don't have a permit and they [government] doesn't want to sign the permit for these things and these are the essential stuff that the people need in the market. That is the reason why the carrots are at $2.50 per pound and the cabbage are at $4.00 per pound and the people in the market who are doing the selling and the people on the streets who are the customer are pleeing to whosoever the run as the minister that could sign, we are not pointing fingers, but we are asking please if you could consider us. It's not only the people in the market or the people shopping at the market, but it's countrywide, if they could please sign so that we can have these things in abundance in the market so that we don't have to go through these complaints."
CEO in the Ministry, Servulo Baeza, told us that while they are considering importation as an option, they want to ensure that the local farmers are able to sell all their produce first.
Servulo Baeza, CEO, Ministry of Agriculture
"Both in Cayo and Orange Walk we do have some farmers right now who are harvesting carrots and cabbage. There is a limited amount, but we do have some farmers right now who are harvesting and if we were to open the market and import then obviously some of those product from our local farmers might not be sold and so we would be competing with importation or what is locally produced. So we need to get our local produce out first. The ministry is trying to make sure that we don't have a shortage in terms of those 2 vegetables specifically right now at this moment. Once we have the local produce already moving or already sold then we will go ahead and give out licenses for those 2 right now. I know there is a lot of demand for those 2 particular products right now, but like I said we do have right now. Some farmers that are harvesting right now and some of it is being lost because of the heavy rains and so we need our farmers to sell their first. We will make sure that our farmers sell theirs first and then we will consider importation."
According to the vendors, only one farmer is currently supplying carrots to the entire market. As for cabbages, we only noted one vendor selling them on our visit.
