And while farmers are hoping they'll have a profitable onion season, for those pastry makers, their profits are in danger.
If you are a lover of the sweet taste of condensed milk, well, you might want to stack up. As we told you last night, the import duty on all batches coming from outside of CARICOM will be increased by 30%. That is to protect Jamaica, which also produces condensed milk, so their duty free milk will be more attractive to other CARICOM countries.
But if you prefer your Dutch Lady or Carnation, then you may see that price jump very soon. And for bakers who make their living off of sweet treats, it puts their livelihood in jeopardy.
Courtney Menzies spoke to a couple of them and has this story.
Condensed milk is a staple in most Belizean homes - used in mornings coffees and evening Ovaltines. And while most cans are sold with the 2-3 dollar range, you may soon see a jump in the price.
The import duty on this product will be increasing by 30% to accommodate Jamaica's condensed milk. So basically, the boxes imported from countries outside of Caricom - your favorites like Carnation, Omela, and Dutch Lady - will see the price increase.
And for those restaurants that use condensed milk everyday, it's a major concern for them. According to the manager at Dits Restaurant, most of their pastries use that as one of the main ingredients.
Rhondine Craig, Manager, Dits Restaurant
"We focus a lot on our pastries here at Dits and most of them require the use of both condensed and evaporated milk. The pastries that we sell here that use the milk is the bread pudding, rice pudding, lemon pie, coconut pie, the coconut tarts, and we also do lemon tarts on order. It's a struggle with most businesses now especially in the food industry, not only are we faced with the over flood of the market but we also have to deal with the increase in everything that we use, including the milk, and like I said that's one of our major things that we use to produce the pastries that we make, so it's steadily getting more anymore harder to stay in business."
And another pastry maker says she's already feeling the pinch even before the increase.
Courtney Menzies
"And what pastries do you make that require the condensed milk?"
Grace Flowers, Sells Pastries
"I make the lemon tart, the coconut tart, the lemon pie, the coconut pie, bread pudding, different things that I have to use the milk on a daily basis. I use up a lot of milk, sometimes for the month it's like two case and a half, a lot of milk I use up, depends on how the sales are. Because I do a lot of catering for people, my pastries travel all around, they go on the iron bird more than me. Right now I try to use the- I can't use the cheapest because the cheapest brand doesn't work out. But I am using the Nestle and the Omega. And every time you go to the Chinese, they raise like a 25 cents, I don't know what is going on with the price control like they're not doing their job, what happened to this government, they have to work along with us too, it's us who put them there."
And both Flowers and Craig say that if the prices of the condensed milk go up, so will their pastries.
Rhondine Craig, Manager, Dits Restaurant
" I think it will have an impact on us because we have to definitely raise the prices to at least try and make some profit or even breakeven because it's really… it's not something that we want to do but we can't continue to go ahead without making the increase and it's a disadvantage to the customers but we would like to still provide the Belizean public with these pastries that we provide so we're hoping that even with the rising cost that we will still get the support of our Belizean customers."
Courtney Menzies
"Do you think that you'll still be able to, even though you're raising the prices, still be able to stay in business?"
Rhondine Craig, Manager, Dits Restaurant
"That's a good question, that's yet to be seen. But with the support of the public we hope we can still stay here for another ten years."
Courtney Menzies
"So with this increase in the import duty how do you think it will affect your business?"
Grace Flowers, Sells Pastries
"It will affect because if you raise the price the people will not want to buy. They don't watch on what you're spending when you go to the store but when you set your price, they have a problem with it."
Courtney Menzies
"How important to your livelihood is your pastry making?"
Grace Flowers, Sells Pastries
"That's my daily bread because you can't go out there and beg any of them for nothing. I just hope that the people will be able to work along with me. I don't put a big raise but I have to raise somehow."
And if they don't raise their prices, they're only other choice would be to switch brands - which they're not sure if they'll be able to since they've never used the Jamaican brand before.
Courtney Menzies
"Do you think you will maybe switch brands to the Jamaican brand because it'll be duty free?"
Grace Flowers, Sells Pastries
"Well, I have to try to do something once it will work out. Because some of the milk you have to watch it, some of the quality of milk, it doesn't work for the lemon pie, when you mix it up how you want it, it does not work out. So if I know that it will work I will have to switch."
Rhondine Craig, Manager, Dits Restaurant
"That all depends on the quality of the milk, that's the reason why we stick with that brand because the thickness and the consistency of it is something that really suits our pastries. So, if it's something that maybe the quality is there then it's a consideration."
But for now, these pastry makers will just have to wait and see when the next batch of imported condensed milk hit the shelves - and those pastry lovers will have to decide if it's worth a few extra few cents - but when the bread pudding looks like this….who's gonna quibble about a few cents?
A government press release says, quote, "Given Jamaica's ability to supply the CARICOM region with condensed milk on a duty-free basis, the effect on price is anticipated to be negligible."
