Belize Now Able to Export Cattle from Entire Country to Mexico

And while laborers who fall within the minimum wage category will be smiling when they receive their first paycheck reflecting that increase, Belize has also made some inroads in the exportation of cattle to Mexico, which will inject some much-needed foreign currency into our economy. There is a down side to that, however, because just as quickly as wages increase for the country’s least-paid laborers, so too will the price of beef locally. It is a delicate balancing act that the officials heading our agriculture sector will have to sort out, but first, we turn to the breakthrough we’ve made with Mexico to open up our exportation of cattle to our neighbours up north through our bilateral trade relations. And the earnings from that venture will be sizeable, according to C.E.O. at the Ministry of Agriculture, Servulo Baeza. He told News Five today that we’re looking at revenues in the vicinity of fifty million dollars Belize.

Servulo Baeza

Servulo Baeza, CEO, Ministry of Agriculture

“We were restricted to export from only the Orange Walk District. So we were telling them but we have done the cattle sweep, we have done all the tests, we have done all the requirements and it was over in Mexico reviewing and reviewing and they were not allowing us to export from other parts of the country – the Mexicans. Through the SENASICA, which is their counterpart to BAHA. They were sending us all the reports, the surveillance reports, because we have to do for bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and so on. So we did all of that and we’ve been behind them, having meetings after meetings. Finally now they have accepted that we can export from the entire country. So for our cattle producers, certainly that’s a big achievement.”

Marion Ali

“What kinds of revenues are we looking at over the next year?

Servulo Baeza

“In terms of the livestock industry, we’re talking almost close to about fifty million dollars Belize for the country. We have to be careful. We are sitting down with the producers and also at the Ministry because we have to have a strategic plan in terms of how we will develop the industry.”