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And moving now to the agriculture sector, the last time we heard about the citrus industry, the CGA reassured Belizeans that the industry would be rebounding after facing hard times.
But the Minister of Agriculture doesn't share the same sentiment. He told us today the the industry itself is basically at death's door, but it's being reborn as something new: a juice industry. He told us that farmers are moving away from solely producing citrus and are now making juices out of various different fruits.
Here's how he explained it.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"The simple answer to that is that the citrus industry is in problem. We will not shy away from the truth, it is in serious problem. We have made attempts to bring it back, the government through DFC has pumped 10 million dollars or 15 million dollars I think into a loan fund through the DFC but unfortunately the farmers have not taken on the loans from DFC, very little amount of the money available for farmers has been taken up by farmers as loans and one of the reason for that is because the price paid to the farmers, farmers believe that even if they take the loan at the price they're being paid, they won't be able to make money and pay it back, so let's not shy away from the truth. The industry is in serious problem, but it is diversifying. It cannot be considered a citrus industry anymore, it is a juice industry, moving away from only doing citrus and doing juices, they have invested heavily on pulping machines, on coconut equipment, and so to say that citrus itself is dead, probably no, but it's diversifying."
"Government creates an environment for them that this can work. If we can import seedlings pineapple seedlings to do concentrate, we will do so, but we have to ensure that the small farmers in the districts are impacted, the small farmers, because if we only focus on the big farmers, then there will be no small farmers."
"I was in the south last week, me and my technical advisor, O'Brien and we visited several farmers and they are there telling us the same thing. If the price is so low, how can I survive? Why will I take a loan that I cannot pay? And you have to understand it, right? Whenever you see that farmers refuse to take a loan, something is terribly wrong because farmers are experts in borrowing money. But we have to be fair here, have to be truthful. And let's see how we move forward."
