Cost of Beans, Rice & Corn Likely to Go Up as Well

According to Minister Mai, rice farmers are also reaching out. This is because the acquisition cost of fertilizers, as well as increasing prices for fuel, triggered by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, may see grains such as beans, rice, and corn likely going up as well.

Jose Abelardo Mai

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security & Enterprise

“The bakers will not be the first or the last to come. You have the grain growers, you have the rice producers. Let me tell you what is my concern, my worry when I look at inflation. The first thing that comes to mind is rice, beans and corn because we eat rice every day. Beans is the cheapest source of protein fro Belizeans, the cheapest source of proteins for Belizeans in meat is chicken. So when corn goes up, when rice goes up, when beans goes up, there is reason for concern. The rice people have already indicated to me that they want to speak about this with me. The war in Russia and Ukraine has not helped the situation; it has gotten worse. I read a report from the O.A.S. says that Central American farmers are to suffer more from the price of fertilizers because I understand that the raw material comes from that area and that worries me even more. Our source of urea for Belize comes from Trinidad and Tobago. That is a petrol based product and so as petrol goes up so does that and then added to the increased cost of ocean freight is just killing us. As a matter of fact, the most expensive fertilizer is urea. Now the rice producer use six bags of urea per acre and two bags of complete fertilizers – that’s eight bags. So that really worries me.”