We also asked the Agriculture Minister about a 10-cent per pound hike in the price of poultry - which we told you about last week.
He said it has to do with a rise in the price of corn and soybeans.
Reporter
"We understand that there was a recent price hike?"
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"There was a ten-cents increase in poultry announced by the Poultry Association last week. Yeah. So that, well again, the prices of goods have gone up across the world, corn being one of them, soy beans...You see sometimes you tend to believe that Belize is an island, we produce our own corn. so therefore, if the price of corn goes up in the U.S., it should not go up in Belize, because we produce our own corn."
"We're not an island. Supply and demand is global. So when the price of corn in the U.S, - the US is the largest producer of corn in the world. So when the price goes up, the Guatemalans say well I can't buy from the U.S., so better I buy from Belize and I'm offering fifty dollars per hundred pounds. So they come offer, one hundred and fifty dollars per hundred pound sack. But the tortilla mill in Belize has to offer the same price. So automatically it goes up. It's the law of supply in demand, right? So that, that is, and at this moment, I've asked my office, my ministry, to do an analysis of the commodities, for example, corn. If the price of corn goes up, what is affected? Will it affect the price is poultry, the price of pork, the price of, not beef maybe, but eggs. If the price of rice goes up, it affects directly the consumer, because we consume the rice. But when corn goes up, when soybean goes up, a number of other commodities go up, because they are dependent on animal feed."
Reporter
"But some may say that 10 cents was a small increase. Mr. Armando Cowo said it's very minuscule. So he believes that it shouldn't have been passed to the consumer. Is this something that you agree with?"
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"It shouldn't have been passed to the consumer. So who would absorb that?"
Reporter
"Well, he is saying that the retailers."
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"It doesn't work like that. I mean, if it goes up, it goes up. At the end of the day, it is the consumer that pays."
