Last week we told you about the Belizean exports specifically onions, carrots, pineapple, and citrus that would be making their way to Salvadoran produce markets.
And this afternoon when we caught up with Minister Mai he gave us a beaming update on that agreement.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"There are a number of hurdles we have to pass when we are looking to trade with partners. The first one was the plant health aspect. When we went to Salvador, we went on a fact-finding mission. We went to see what are the products on the market - how are they presented, what is the quality, what are the prices, what is the packaging. And we drove so that we could know exactly the route the product would take for it to reach El Salvador. We looked at all the hiccups on the road, we looked at the road conditions, we looked at everything from Belize to El Salvador. That was the reason why we drove. We went to the market and we look at different market, different products, the presentation, the quality, the appearance, the way how it is sold in pounds, sold by units and based on that, we came up with four products that we believed we have competitive edge. One of them is citrus, the second is pineapple, the third is onions and the fourth one is carrots."
"These 4 we believe when we look at our product, our prices and theirs and say listen, I think we can do something here. The requested to Salvador that we had interest in trading with them and they said we have to do a pest risk assessment."
"They came to Belize, sent their people, did their study and reported back to us saying that they were satisfied that there was not a plant health risk. So that's the first hurdle. The second hurdle is that we need to improve our quality with the farmers; we cannot sell them anything. And three, we have to now look if we can sustain that market with the amount. And four, the competitiveness in price. Can we maintain the prices where we can sell to them? So we may have passed this hurdle, but we have other challenges and so now we have to work in those aspects."
