And now that Belizean farmers will have the opportunity to ship fruits and veggies south, will they become more expensive here at home?
That's what we asked Minister Mai:
Reporter
"Sir, many people are worried, you know we have this great trade deal now, but how is it going to affect the prices of those goods here at home?"
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"We do not expect that there will be any major changes in prices at this time. We are still in very infant stage as yet, but we have to work towards it and we will try to avoid that as much as possible that it will be affecting our local prices. We cannot afford for consumers to be paying high prices for commodities anymore. I think we have to try to curb that."
Reporter
"Will we be able to meets demands that they have as well as that here?"
Reporter
"And to add to that, I think that question is poignant, because we already have shortages in our markets, where you go there and there is not enough produce and some people say the vendors prefer the produce rot than to sell it."
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"I dont agree with that statement, that farmers prefer the product rot and not sell it. e initially were only able to produce carrots for three months of the year. Today, the latest report we just saw a while ago because I was in Orange Walk for another meeting, we are producing carrots now ten months of the year, potatoes we are at six months of the year; we did ten months of the year for lettuce, which we are having some problems with the quality and we have to make some adjustments there. So we have enough products for ourselves. As a matter of fact, today, the farmers are saying I have enough carrots and I have enough onions and I can't sell it because the people don't seem to want it right now. We are working with that. We have to find a way because the contraband on the market is just terrible. It's just terrible so we have to find a way to adjust that. That meeting I had earlier today was to address that matter."
