And another new addition to Belize that could be coming pretty soon is the Ostrich Agro-industry.
It's still pending the environmental assessments, but barring any problems, it has the executive green light from the Minister of new growth and now from the Prime Minister. Here's more:
Reporter
"Minister of New Growth had said that if all the environmental studies can be done, he will support the raising of Ostridge for farming in Belize. What's your stance on that?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister of Belize
"I agree with him, if this is another opportunity - I mean I'd never thought of growing Ostriches in Belize, but it seems that we have kind of the same climate, so that they can go, but my position has been when I've spoken to Mr. and Mrs. Marin, both of them and to BAHA and everybody, yes we need to be able to hold them in an isolated area just to ensure that they are not bringing any kind of new virus or anything that can affect our poultry industry, so BAHA is right to saying and ministry of environment or sustainable development that we need to do properly. Sometime they drag their feet to long - they take toom long to make decisions, but we are going in the right direction, but I do believe that we should give them an opportunity. I think some people had already brought in Ostrich without the proper documentation and that is what was so wrong, that here is a group that is trying to follow the law, trying to do it properly and then they are penalized, yet we have other people that have brought it in and the people at DOE and BAHA knew that these birds are here and did nothing about it and that is my problem that I had with Minister Habet when I was telling him - but its already here, so allow the people to come to do it and do it in a controlled environment."
Aspiring Ostrich breeder Nancy Marin has since been issued import permits for the three Ostriches, one male and two females, that she already has on her farm, as well as three additional females that she'll likely bring in from Mexico.
