Eco-Marketplace Expo 2019 Held in Belize City
The Eco-Marketplace Expo is in full swing at the Biltmore Plaza. It got underway this morning and a number of artistic, as well as creative business persons, are using the event to bring exposure to their products which they created with local products. The array is wide, ranging from jewelry to environmentally conscious products as well as services in tourism. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo
The Eco-Marketplace Expo, is where environmentally-conscious entities gather to showcase their products and services in Belize. Khadija Assales of Kaj Expression has transformed a predatory and invasive species, the Lion Fish, into fine pieces of jewelry.
Khadija Assales, Kaj Expression
Khadija Assales
“We have our eco friendly lion fish jewelry which is what we brought here today as part of this eco expo. The whole concept behind it is that we are saving the reef by making the lionfish jewelry. Majority of the pieces you see today are made using the lionfish tails which we pair with fourteen carat so it is super high quality lionfish jewelry. Once we get the lionfish wet it takes a few days to dry it out. Once they are dry it out then we attach the clips to them and there is a twenty four hours process so that they can properly dry. We create everything with the lionfish pieces.”
Like Khadija Assales, Jolie Pollard used her creative talent and has merged natural ingredients to create hair products for females with curly hair. The main ingredient is seaweed.
Jolie Pollard
Jolie Pollard, Ikooma
“I use hand harvested and sustainably farmed seaweed frown in Placencia by the Placencia Seaweed Farmers. I paid full price and I buy it by the pound. I take that raw seaweed and I bled it with my formula. I stared in 2015, making my own hair products and I just kept working on it, on my formula. I couldn’t get it right and finally when I started to incorporate seaweed with the other ingredients I realized that that was the missing ingredient.”
Attracting visitors to their booth was Eco Tourism Belize, the social arm of Yaaxche Conservation Trust. Eco-Tourism Belize goal is to connect nature, wildlife, and communities for a more sustainable world. The group works with farmers and women group, raising funds to carry out its mandate.
Marcela Assi, Business Manager, Eco Tourism Belize
Marcela Assi
“We work with farmers by giving them technical support, to start sustainable farming practices and in the end they are not able to produce products such as hundred percent pure honey. With the women’s group we work with them by giving the capacity building training. In the end they are able to market their product, such as their arts and craft and organic chocolate. Hundred percent profits that we gain through Eco Tourism Belize goes back to conservation in southern Belize.”
And across Belize Madisco is distributing, at an affordable cost, hundred percent bio-degradable products. With the ban on single-use plastic in Belize, Madisco is leading the charge in providing consumers and small businesses with an alternative.
Carlo Marin
Carlo Marin, Food and Beverage Manager, Madisco
“Our product is actually biodegradable, it breaks down within a hundred and twenty days. So what you see here is just a sample of what we actually carry throughout the country. What you see are clam shells which is pretty much what all the fry chicken come in. We have the soup dishes. We have the flat plates. We also have cups. We have clear plastic cups which look like plastic but it is actually bagasse, a hundred percent biodegradable. You leave it in the sun within twenty-six to forty eight hours and it starts to disintegrate.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
