Going back now to our interview with Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai, we asked him about the deep troubles in the citrus industry. Right now should be the peak of the harvest - but many farmers are neither picking nor delivering oranges because the very low price per box which they get at the factory just isn't worth their while. That's because the cost of fertilizer has soared, along with increases in the cost of fuel and labour. That's why many seasoned farmers say that 2023 may be the end of the citrus industry - or at least the industry as we now know it. They say the current price per box is an arbitrary reduction fo what they used to get, and it is also below current world prices for citrus futures.
On the other hand, the Citrus Products of Belize Limited, CPBL has been operating at a loss for 5 years now - and last year, reports tell us that loss was 8 million dollars.
Indeed, by every indicator it is an industry at a crisis crossroads. The Minister of Agriculture says he will meet with the principals of CPBL on Monday to find out why the price per box is so low:
We'll keep following this story.
