Earlier in the news, we told you about the new UHT Processing Plant in Spanish Lookout, but that wasn't the only reason the Minister of Agriculture was in Cayo. There was a groundbreaking ceremony for a soybean refinery plant as well. That's exciting news - it means that in the near future, Belize will be able to make its own cooking oil rather than importing 123 - or whichever oil you prefer to use. Minister Jose Mai explained more:
Hon. Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"We have already the soybean mill, they will now combine that with a oil refinery. So the oil taken out the mill which is the by product is now going to be refine and exported or bottled for local consumption. it is a huge step - a 8-million-dollar investment. So that is very important achievement for the country. At first in the early 90s's there was no soybean plant, then there were 5,000 acres. Today, there is 28,000 acres of soybean planted. Yet we still don't meet the seed demand, so you can see there is much more to grow, but when we now have soybean we convert it into feed for the animals - we have the oil. What do we do with oil? in its raw state the market price is very low, so we have to add value to that. This facility will do just that, it will refine the soybean oil up to the point it can be used for cooking."
