High Demand for Beef Means High Prices Locally but We Have Options

More exports of cattle to Mexico means a more lucrative business for cattle producers when compared to the amount they make locally for the same product. The reality is that the higher the demand is for cattle and cattle products beyond our borders, the higher the price is expected to go at home. So that minimum wage increase we told you about just now will be a welcomed incentive to help offset the rate of inflation being felt most among the poorest citizens. But how will Belize keep the price of beef affordable so that even those in that lowest income bracket will still be able to buy this choice of meat? C.E.O. Baeza told us there are a few options they at the ministry can consider.

Servulo Baeza

Servulo Baeza, C.E.O., Ministry of Agriculture

“There’s demand now in Mexico, there’s demand in Guatemala, so now the price has gone up from a dollar and change to – it’s going up. So that puts pressure now on our local processors and our butchers because they have to pay more now for the beef that they want to buy because the demand increases, the price increases also. We put a group together with the processers and the producers to come up with some recommendations to see how we can manage this. We even had a meeting with the Belize Livestock Producers Association. There were some recommendations that were done. For instance, they were saying you as the processor you may have to do in investment also because you are saying you don’t have supply for raw material. So you might have to do an investment and start to raise your own cattle so that you can ensure that you have a supply of raw materials. That is one option. Obviously not all the processors can do that. We might have to look at certain ways of – for local consumption, we might have to have some incentives to keep some cattle available for the local producers. That’s another option. Everything is on the table at the moment.”