And those inflated prices are, to some extent, being driven by Belize's strong dependency on imported food products.
In January and February, imports continued to climb, while exports dropped again - due largely to a sharp downturn in the banana industry:
Tiffany Vasquez, Statistician II
"For the period January to February 2023, Belize's domestic exports were valued at 47.1 million dollars. This was a drop of 5.1% or 2.5 million dollars when compared to that same period last year. This overall decline was largely due to decreased exports of bananas where earnings drop drastically by more than 50% or 5.9 million dollars to 5.1 million as bananas continue to be heavily impacted by disease, labour issues and extraordinarily high production costs driven by the global fertilizer crisis and the significant cost for fuel."
"Citrus exports also saw a notable decrease down 21% or 1.1 million dollars t0 4 million going mostly to smaller exports of orange concentrate. For the period January to February 2023, Belize's import stood at 412.4 million dollars. This represented an increase of 3.1% or a growth of 12.5 million dollars where it was observed that most commodity categories saw an increase when compared to that same period last year."
"With the surge in global food crisis, the food and live animals' category rose by 21% or almost 9 million dollars to 50.9 million as the country spent notably more on food items like wheat and margarine."
"Imports of chemical products like fertilizers and detergents were also heavily impacted by global prices causing this category to grow by almost 19% or 7.3 million dollars to 46.4 million."
"The categories of manufactured goods and other manufactures rose by a considerable 36% or 11 million dollars to 91.1 million due to increased spending on construction materials such as galvanize steel coils, corrugated steel rods and pre-fabricated buildings."
"In summary for the period January to February 2023 Belize's imports stood at 412.4 million dollars. That's an increase of 3.1% while domestic exports were valued at 47.1 million dollars and that's a decline of 5.1%."
