When he was in opposition, Agriculture Minister Jose Mai was a champion of the potato farmers in his Orange Walk South Constituency.
And now he has to protect them from imported and contraband potatoes as the local crop is coming to harvest.
A release says senior staff from his Ministry held a meeting with the vegetable importers, distributors, and potato producers of the Orange Walk District.
This meeting took place at the SIRDI conference room in Buena Vista, Corozal. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss wholesale distribution, the issuance of permits, and the prices of locally grown potatoes.
Following these talks, several recommendations brought up in the meeting were agreed upon.
First, the issuance of permits will be monitored before the harvesting of local production. Producers and producers' groups will now need to provide a stamped and signed receipt to buyers and importer who purchase from them.
When applying for the importation of vegetables, importers will now need to show receipts from producers, demonstrating that they purchased local produce. Any importer caught with contraband products will be disqualified from any further importation. The duration of import license for vegetable importation will now be 7 days, instead of 11 days.
