Agric. ministry seeks to boost local produce sales
“Belizeans do no consume enough fruits and vegetables.” That’s according to Ministry of Health Nutritionists Gilda Richardson. In an effort to assist Belizeans with their daily dose of vitamins, minerals and iron and also ensure that farmers get the right price for their produce, an agricultural team toured Belize City supermarkets this morning. For Eulalio Garcia, executive chairman of the Belize Marketing Board and Sergio Garcia, acting CEO in the Ministry of Agriculture, it’s all about marketing.
Eulalio Garcia, Exec. Chairman, Bz. Marketing Board
“We want to show two things. One is that our products can compete, but we need to have good presentation, in other words packaging, and labelling for value add. The second aspect is quality, I believe that we can produce similar products of similar quality for the Belizean consumer and probably a lot fresher and more nutritious than those that are imported. We need to encourage Belizeans to consume locally. Two important things, one is that the fresher the product the more nutritious, secondly at least you are pretty much aware of what you are consuming.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You’re talking about fresh fruits and vegetables here.”
Eulalio Garcia
“Exactly. And also the processed goods. For example, plantain chips, coco yam chips, you also have peanuts, vacuum fried peanuts. You also have a lot of other products that we want to promote now, such a stewed cashew, we are looking at craboos, having it in syrup. We’re looking at promoting the soupa and I think that we have to link agriculture to tourism, whereby the tourist want to come and consume local exotic products rather than the foods they are accustomed to.”
Sergio Garcia, Ag. CEO, Ministry of Agriculture
“If we talk about the volume, the scale of production, yes we can produce it. For example potatoes, we are producing it and selling it to the importers at forty cents a pound, which is competitive with Mexican potatoes and even the United States, and good quality vegetables.”
Garcia is appealing to consumers to buy more local produce that will soon be available from the Marketing Board. The fruits and vegetables will carry special stickers and will be sold at local shops and produce markets.
