And from a local fire to a rebounding export industry that government hopes can catch fire in a lucrative Asian market.
Shrimp farming or aquaculture was once one of the most successful exports from Belize, but all that changed 10 years ago when shrimp farming was wiped out by disease.
But now thanks to a trade opening with Taiwan Belize has slowly begun to revive its Shrimp production. Jomarie Lanza spoke with experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade via zoom today to discuss the years of work that went into making this trade connection possible. Here's her story.
Three years ago Belize signed an Economic Cooperation Agreement with Taiwan in the hopes of capturing a lucrative market for the export of farmed shrimp and reviving an industry that drastically declined almost a decade ago. And with time and significant investments to overcome the early mortality syndrome in shrimp affecting the industry, they now have enough to export internationally. And Taiwan has been one of the first to welcome Belize into its seafood market.
Berisford Codd, Senior Trade Economist
"As you may know shrimp was one of the major industries in Belize maybe about a decade ago but due to early mortality syndrome the industry has taken a bit of a nose dive with production so we looked at it as an opportunity to tap into a new market that can help to revive some of the production short falls that have happened in Belize over the last decade and bring us back to permanence this very high potential shrimp industry."
"Just in terms of the numbers in 2014 we are at about 90 million dollars in exports significant production around the world different operations around the country that number has fallen off significantly anywhere between 2-3 million dollars in exports since then but this is a great opportunity for us in Belize a great shot in the arm to allow us to start ramping back up production and tapping into that high value market. And one of the good things about the Taiwanese market is it is very resilient when it comes to seafood imports. when we were over there just last week for the second meeting of the administrative commission one of the importers the largest importers from Yens, Yens mentioned to us that during the financial crisis during covid, shrimp, seafood, lobster you know all of the typical seafood that is imported remained consistent throughout there was no significant dip in terms of import demand."
The resilience of Taiwan's seafood market was one of the main things that attracted Belize to begin exportation. And once we were able to meet their policies and standards, as of July 30th shrimp can officially begin moving from Belize to Taiwan
Dr Natalie Gibson, Technical Director for Food Safety
"We are involved in making sure that the product that has been produced is safe for consumption. We do have in BAHA the animal health department and specifically the aquatic health unit that does surveillance for diseases for the industry and so they are there to provide support, the testing support to the industry to avoid damage by disease and provide recommendations and they also would certify the health status of shrimp products. But yes but in terms of investment and production then that is independent of us. If there is a facility there our job is just to make sure it meets standards."
"But I just wanted to say since we have been focused on shrimp that we actually have access to more than shrimp in terms of seafood we have been exporting lobster prior to this and now we have an expansion to other, not just shrimp other crustaceans, mollusks like Conch we have other aquatic species that we can trade in as well."
Taiwan imported an average of over USD 349 million dollars in shrimp annually between 2020 and 2024.
