And while most of us can't relate that easily to imports and exports, we know all about inflation. Anyone who's been to a grocery store recently will know that prices just keep going up. But, not all of them. The Statistical Institute of Belize found that in the first 10 months of this year, when food prices were up, pineapple and pigtails went down:
Melvin Perez, Statistician
"We can see that majority of the items had increased by more than 20%. Specifically, oats, flour, evaporated milk, egg, vegetable oil, lime, cilantro, carrots, habanero, plantain, and orange. Nonetheless, there were good news."
"As lower prices were recorded for some items such as pigtail and pineapple. Looking at the good news, the transfer categories saw lower prices which went down by 1.3%. And this was mainly due to a decrease in the fuel and lubricant subcategory which went down by 5.1%."
"And of course, as we saw diesel and gasoline going down for the first eight months of the year of 2023. It can clearly be seen that San Pedro and Punta Gorda Town experienced the highest increase in consumer prices with cumulative inflation rate of 6.7%."
"On the other hand, Corozal Town experienced the lowest cumulative inflation rate with a 3.7%."
Jose Mai Wants To Get Into BSI's Books
In other news, the press today asked the Minister of Agriculture about the Commission of Inquiry to - as they have put it - to examine the modernization of the sugar cane industry and improve its viability.
But does that include an audit of BSI? We know that the cane farmer Jose Mai surely wants to get into those books and we asked him about the prospect of that today:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Look, an inquiry would include everything from the field up to the final destination of export, which would be the market destination. It would include everything. We are hopeful that this would reveal all the details that need to go into a commercial agreement or set the basis for a very good sound technical, updated and modern sugar industry act."
"There are many things that need to be ventilated, many things that need to be known and everybody needs to know them. It's supposed to be transparent and this will set the stage for any other industry in the future that comes along."
Citrus Industry Contracts, Farmers Pull For Record Box Price
Mai also commented on the record price of 18 dollars per box that all the citrus grower groups have agreed to for the 2023/2024 processing season.
For the dying industry, It's like hiring DJ Dalla to play at your wake - but today the Minister said, more power to them:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Government intervention so far financially has been the allocation of funds to the DFC for them to lend to citrus growers. That is our support so far. Secondly, at the ministerial level, our discussion had been yet in stages to discuss or to offer the citrus growers a subsidized price for seedlings."
"You know that many of the trees are old and diseased so they have identified resistant or tolerant varieties of the disease. Now, we were prepared, we asked prepared to offer them a subsidy. Of course, this has to go to cabinet yet."
"Offer them at least 50% of the cost of seedlings so that the farmers could restart their orchards. That is as far as we go in terms of financial support to citrus growers. So they themselves, among themselves, have decided that that is the way that they will go with 18 dollars per box."
"We continue to dialogue with them and encourage them to meet and to arrive at this step of solutions that will benefit all stakeholders."
50 Years Of Red
And, finally tonight, the UDP celebrated its 50th anniversary today. For the party which started out as a tenuous coalition in 1973 - there's still a lot to celebrate - even as it finds itself in troubled waters since the massive loss of 2020. Yesterday, Leader Shyne Barrow looked at his party's proud legacy:
