Looking to El Salvadoran Markets for Belizean Export Opportunities

Minister Mai has also been in El Salvador, meeting with his counterpart there.  Mai also visited Salvadoran markets to see which products Belizean farmers might be able to provide.

Abelardo Mai

Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“Alarmingly, El Salvador imports eighty-five percent of what they consume. They import huge amounts of food from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras. Hence why, I think, the Ambassador said we can help by getting some stuff from you. Right, we are waiting on them to send us the hecto-sanitary protocols, the animal health protocols and the trade protocols to see where it that they can help us is. We visited the markets and we looked, I wanted to see what products are in the market, where do they come from, what the grade is, what is the quality, price and presentation. With that I can have good idea of what we can compete with. Our policy analyst was along with us. She took notes and information. She is now putting that in the database. We will analyze it and we will see from that what it is that Belize can compete with. I can tell you I see a few commodities in the market, I look at price, I look at quality. I said I can do this, I am sure I can.”