Price Of Poultry Up By Ten Percent
Another commodity that has seen a recent increase is poultry. Viewers might have taken note that the price of poultry increased by ten cents earlier this week. As a result, some of the popular fast food restaurants have already increased their prices to reflect this change. We asked Minister Mai about this latest increase. Here is what he told us.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“There was a ten cents increase peace in poultry announced by the Poultry Association last week. Yeah. So that, well again, the prices of goods have gone up across the world, corn being one of them. So I, you see sometimes you tend to believe that Belize is an island, we produce our own. And, and so therefore, if the price of corn goes up in the U.S., Belize, we’re not an island. Supply and demand is global. So when the price of corn in the U.S, the US is the largest producer of corn in the world. So when the price goes up, the Guatemala says what? I can’t buy from the U.S. best I buy from Belize and I’m offering fifty dollars per hundred pounds. So they come offer, if I’m selling one hundred and fifty dollars per hundred pounds. But, Belize has to offer the same price, so automatically it goes up. It’s a love supply in demand, right? So that, that is, and, and, and at this moment, I’ve asked my office, my ministry, to do an analysis of the commodities, for example, corn. If the price of corn goes up, what is affected? Well, it affects the price is poultry, the price of pork, the price of not beef. But eggs, if the price of rice goes up, it affects directly the consumer how we consume the rice. But when corn goes up, when soybean goes up, a number of other commodities go up because they’re dependent on the feed.”
Reporter
“But some may say that 10 cents was a small increase. Mr. Armando Cowo said it’s very minuscule. So he believes that it shouldn’t have been passed to the consumer.”
Jose Mai
“Is this something that you agree with? It shouldn’t have been passed to the consumer. Why passed down to the. So who would observe that?”
