Belizean Farmers Face Growing Crisis

Isabel Vasquez

For several weeks local farmers, retailers and wholesalers of fresh produce have been grumbling about a saturated market for certain commodities, making it almost impossible for hundreds of vendors to reap the profits they so desperately need.

The complaints are echoing the loudest around the Belize City market amid vendors who have already suffered more than their fair share in recent months, having been abruptly relocated to inappropriate premises following the closure of the traditional market stall location.  That injustice, it seems, was mild in comparison to the hardships vendors are now facing.

The problem that is causing so much distress currently is that the domestic market is being flooded by imported Mexican products, which often appear more appealing in quality and price for buyers, leaving their local counterparts “on the shelf” until they are discarded in desperation.

A short trip to the market at any time of day, any day of the week, reveals just how serious this problem is, with an obvious surplus of various products stacked high in the backs of vans and under shop counters, with little potential of ever being sold.  Those products produced locally that are most displaced by foreign imports are celery, carrots and lettuce.

Farmers from Springfield, San Antonio (Cayo), San Carlos (Orange Walk) and Barton Creek are just a handful of those affected by what appears to be an apparent disregard for the Belizean people on the part of the UDP administration; the crux of the matter, it appears, is that while the government alleges to have ceased granting importation licenses, certain importers are still freely importing vast quantities of Mexican goods to compete on the market with local produce.

One Springfield farmer alone estimates that some 5000 pounds of celery has already spoiled in his field because there is insufficient demand to warrant harvesting it. Even worse, with another four months of peak celery season ahead of us, the future prospects look bleak for this farmer (like so many) for profiting from all his hard work over the past year.  And an even louder cry from the many voices on the market is that they were encouraged by the government to increase their yields to reduce dependency on foreign imports.  It is not surprising that most say they will reject any further pleas for planting excess quantities of produce, and some even threaten to leave the agricultural sector altogether, which could leave the Belizean market with a gaping hole between demand and supply in the future.

Complaints are not merely idle words to the media.  Many of these vendors have already visited Minister Montero on more than one occasion to discuss their predicament; they reported back to the masses that the Agriculture Department has apparently denied all accusations of this licensing blunder.  The denial fell on deaf (or disbelieving) ears, however, as the market vendors see the evidence of lenient licensing every day when their local goods are forced to compete with excessive imports from Mexico.  What little credit the Minister had sustained over the past year of blunders has now vanished almost overnight.

It is not just a hope but an urgent necessity that Mexican import licenses are corrected to exclude those local products which are in such great supply right now.  One more week of such heightened competition will undoubtedly cripple some retailers, and even more worryingly, threatens to undermine the very foundations of the agricultural industry for the future.

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