And the other basic food item that may be seeing a price increase is sugar. Part of the reason is to combat the high incidence of sugar smuggling that has left shelves in Belize empty. If you're able to find sugar in your neighborhood store, chances are you're only allowed one bag per family.
But the PM said they wouldn't raise the price arbitrarily - it would be strategic and it in no way would match the high prices in Mexico.
But in the meantime, sugar is still being smuggled, and last week, a press release from the UDP claimed that there was an incident at the border where BDF seized bags of sugar about to cross at an illegal border point. The owner of the sugar then made a phone call, and shortly after the BDF platoon allegedly received a call from the "Cabinet level" telling them to allow the sugar to pass, as the man had a permit from BAHA.
Today the ComPol said that that story doesn't make sense, since police officers would have been there, not just BDF. He called the claim nothing more than political mischief.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Sometimes I wonder if I should respond to things that are baseless and is being said for political gain. The police involved in the patrol of the irregular border crossing area in the north, on some of those patrols we do have BDF but I don't see BDF operating along the border area without the police and so if there were to be any one told to stand down it would be the police, not the BDF. The BDF do not have law enforcement authority, it's the police that does that, so for one to suggest that the BDF were told to stand down just simply does not make any sense. I saw an advertisement done by the UDP in respect to sugar and a truck that was intercepted. You all know about this case fully well, which the sugar and the truck was taken to the police station in Orange Walk Town, I had given an interview on that matter when it just occurred, and in the advertised I saw that they're saying that the truck and its content were released after Minister of Agriculture visited the police and he gave instruction, these things need to stop. When that incident occurred, to be fair to the Minister of Agriculture, he wanted the person to be charged, he was pressing for the person to be charged, but our difficulty then, as I had said to the media, we were unable to establish that the sugar was going to be exported out of the country. it is not illegal for anybody to have a large amount of sugar within the country and in order for us to have prosecuted that individual, we would have to prove that the sugar was going to be exported, we cannot prove that. And so based on that, he was released. It was found out that the sugar was supposed to go to some place in Independence, not anywhere out of the country, so again I think that people need to be fair and truthful in what they say and stop making things look like what it is not."
