El Salvador Approves Importation of 4 Fruits/Vegetables from Belize

Jose Abelardo Mai

The Ministry of Agriculture has been exploring other markets where Belize can export its produce.  Last Friday, one such market was successfully opened in El Salvador. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of El Salvador informed the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation, BMDC, that a request for a pest risk analysis for carrots, citrus, onion and pineapple has been approved. This is the first step in the exportation of commodities and so Belizean farmers will soon be able to export these products to El Salvador. The process began back in early 2022 when Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai led a delegation to El Salvador.

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

“When we went to Salvador, we went on a fact-finding mission. We went to see what are the products on the market – how are they presented, what is the quality, what are the prices, what is the packaging. And we drove so that we could know exactly the route the product would take for it to reach El Salvador. We looked at all the hiccups on the road, we looked at the road conditions, we looked at everything from Belize to El Salvador. That was the reason why we drove. Based on that, we came up with four products that we believed we have competitive edge. One of them is citrus, the second is pineapple, the third is onions and the fourth one is carrots. They came to Belize, sent their people did their study and reported back to us saying that they were satisfied that there was not a plant health risk. So that’s the first hurdle. The second hurdle is that we need to improve our quality with the farmers; we cannot sell them anything. And three, we have to now look if we can sustain that market with the amount. And four, the competitiveness in price. Can we maintain the prices where we can sell to them? So we may have passed this hurdle, but we have other challenges and so now we have to work in those aspects.”