Potato Shortage & No Fries to be Found

Jose Abelardo Mai

If you’ve been unable to get fries with your fast food and it is being substituted with fried rice, it’s because there is a shortage of imported fries. Today, Agriculture Minister Jose Abelardo Mai confirmed this with the media and also said that there has been a shortage of local produce itself in Belize due to a disease that affected more than half of the crop.

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

“We had a very bad crop in potatoes this year, probably like sixty or seventy percent was lost to a disease, which apparently came in the seed, I am being told. But we are now out of local potatoes; we are going to import fresh potatoes, but there is also a shortage of fries in the world market. I was supposed to get a report this morning on the reason for that, which I will get and report to you back on the reason for that.  But we have right now authorised the importation of fries. Of course it has to be managed, especially when you are harvesting potatoes. But if you are not harvesting potatoes, it should not be a problem. But there is a scarcity right now on the world market; I am being made to understand. The reason I will find out and get back to you.”