Papaya business moving forward in Orange Walk

When Hurricane Dean walloped Northern Belize in July, one of the most severely affected parts of the economy was the papaya industry. And while exports of the fruit are by no means back to normal, one modern growing and packing operation in the Orange Walk District, working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, is making an impact.

Abe Dyck, Shareholder/Mgr., Maya Papaya
“We want to expand a little lager than we are. We are exporting fifteen containers per week right now. We are hoping to expand a little bit to possibly twenty-five containers per week.”

“We, right now we employ two hundred and twenty-five employees that we have on our farm here and then with the acres that we’ve got production by other farmers outside that grow for us we don’t know the exact figure but we figure that there’s about another two workers that are employed by those farms that grow papaya for us. So there’s a total of somewhere around four hundred and twenty-five, maybe a little bit more that that in that area.”

And while not all of the agricultural activity in Orange Walk is on such a large scale, under the E.U supported Belize Rural Development Programme, smaller projects are being implemented that are providing rural people with training and employment. For District Agriculture Coordinator Belarmino Esquivel, the key is organisation.

Belarmino Esquivel, Agriculture Co-ordinator., O.W. District
“I think one of the challenges we have as ministry is to organize people. I think Orange Walk has taken a lead in that and I think the message is that we a solid Orange Walk Farmers Producers Association and we are targeting women as well.”

Among the B.R.D.P. projects in Orange Walk are the production of soy milk in Trial Farm and the creation of a horse and carriage service for tourists at Indian Church.