There is an outbreak of Bovine rabies in three districts. BAHA announced today that the disease has been detected in the Corozal, Orange Walk, Cayo and Toledo Districts. As such livestock farmers are advised to vaccinate their livestock as well as sheep, cattle, sheep and horses. BAHA advises that the rabies can be transmitted to […]
In agricultural news: it slipped under the radar, but in December 2016, Irish fruit distribution company Fyffes, well known in Belize for purchasing Belizean bananas, was bought out by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation for nearly eight hundred million U.S. dollars. The Sumitomo name is perhaps most associated with vehicle tyres, but the Corporation has a sprawling […]
Among the most disappointing performers in Belize’s “big five” line-up of exports – sugar, citrus, bananas, marine products and petroleum – is marine products and particularly the shrimp farming industry. But their problems translate from a virus that ravaged stocks. The industry tried a reboot with new genetic material, and while initially it looked promising […]
Turning to developments in the agriculture sector…. The Annual General Meeting of the Citrus Growers Association planned for January twenty-first, 2017, is a crossroads in the survival of the multi-million dollar industry. The industry has been suffering from in-fighting between larger growers aligned with Belize Citrus Mutual and medium and smaller growers still loyal to […]
The 2016-2017 citrus season is behind schedule due to impacts from Hurricane Earl in August. Millions of dollars in damages was suffered by growers of grapefruit and orange, the former in particular. However, after a delay, the season is picking up with grapefruit deliveries underway and orange set to join in as well in the […]
Almost five years ago, the Citrus Growers Association opened a four-million Belize dollar nursery for citrus plants which it sells to growers. The Plant World Nursery, located off the Southern Highway in Red Bank village, hosts as many as three hundred and fifty thousand plants and is the center of the multi-million dollar industry’s efforts […]
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association today stepped forward to tell its side of the Fairtrade suspension debacle. The B.S.C.F.A. was suspended for the third time in eight years after auditors found that former San Estevan cane farmer Eloy Escalante sold his quota or production estimate to the son of a Government Minister, Edmond Castro, […]
While the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers’ Association has made it clear that it wants no further part of Escalante, a combative Edmond Castro is a different story. He has threatened to sue if the B.S.C.F.A. continues to blame him for their suspension and accused them of mismanagement of the “ghost farmer” situation. But the Association […]
On Monday while in the North, Minister of Agriculture Senator Godwin Hulse opened Belize’s mandatory quarantine treatment facility at the northern border in Santa Elena, Corozal District. It is part of the Ministry’s plans along with the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) to crack down on quarantine regulations and keep all produce exported from Belize […]
The Sugar Cane Production Committee has admitted that it is tough to police transactions between farmers of sugar cane and non-farmers. A recent case is the Eloy Escalante affair, where the cane farmer left the industry three years ago and sold his production estimate or quota to the son of a Government Minister. That person […]
As we reported on Monday, sugar farmers in Corozal and Orange Walk are bracing for direct competition next year with European sugar beet farmers. Beginning in 2017, the quota secured many years ago by the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) bloc of nations will be ended. But Belize Sugar Industries and its American partner, American […]
Today, the 2016-2017 sugar crop in Corozal and Orange Walk began. More than one point three million tonnes of sugar cane are expected to be delivered for processing to the Tower Hill factory run by American Sugar Refining Belize Sugar Industries. There are no outstanding issues between the millers and the farmers, and all that […]
The Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association continues to reel from news received last week that it would be suspended for the third time by Fairtrade managers FLOCERT. Publicly, the Association has blamed one of its own, Eloy Escalante, whom they have kicked out after he admitted to Fairtrade auditors that he sold his quota or […]
Minister Edmond Castro claims to have as much as two thousand acres of sugar cane under production in and around his native Maskall. But the Sugar Act mandates for now that B.S.I. can only accept cane from farmers in Corozal and Orange Walk, unless there is a shortage. Fellow Minister and sugar planter himself, Godwin […]
A consignment of a little over fifty thousand pounds of green ham, uncured meat, that was reportedly brought in from Miami after being rejected in Ecuador is sitting at the western border tonight. The shipment is under quarantine by the Belize Agricultural and Health Authority. The name of the importer is unconfirmed, but we know […]
The Ministry of Agriculture just got some brand new tech to help them gather data and do other work that is critical to the ministry. Drones have been used primarily in the creative sector, photographers, videographers and the media in Belize. But it is also used by logistic companies like DHL for deliveries, by Police […]
A special general meeting has been requested by a group of forty-six farmers, including former Citrus Growers Association Chairman Bryon Bowman, to address the current financial state of affairs of CGA. That date is set for Saturday, November twenty-sixth, ahead of a scheduled annual general meeting in December. The farmers are demanding that CGA releases […]
According to Chief Executive Officer Henry Anderson, during the time when there was an issue with Banks Holdings, an agreement was made for new auditors to be assigned to the Citrus Products of Belize Limited. The process of reviewing the company’s financials has been extensive and is expected to be completed in time for an […]
There is word tonight that there is financial trouble in one of the major industries in the south. Reports from within the citrus industry say that the Citrus Growers Association is seeking a forty-million-dollar line of credit from the Social Security Board. But the CGA is unable to present audited financials to its membership in […]
According to Chanona, growers have lost fifty-eight percent of ownership in CPBL. Shareholdings have since plummeted from ninety-nine to forty-one percent over the years and farmers are urging the committee of management to come clean about CGA’s assets. Isani Cayetano “You’ve mentioned that there hasn’t been any audit of the association’s financials for quite […]
The Prime Minister announced changes to Cabinet last week, which included changes in portfolios for the subjects of this and our next story. After the 2015 general elections, Prime Minister Barrow handed the powerful portfolio of the Ministry of Natural Resources to Senator Godwin Hulse, where he succeeded then-Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega. Vega kept […]
Forty-one-year-old Ismael Jimenez Junior, a mechanic employed at BELCOGEN, lost his life this afternoon after being pinned between two vehicles at the energy plant on Tower Hill. It is unclear what exactly transpired that resulted in Jimenez being fatally crushed. Co-workers at the facility were later able to free Jimenez before rushing him to the […]
Earl wasn’t just a storm which brought high waters, tore off roofs, damaged homes and panicked a nation. It also devastated our agriculture industry which has already been facing real challenges. But now it’s much worse. At the press conference held on Thursday, Agriculture C.E.O. Jose Alpuche explained that what he presented was a preliminary […]
And while the crushing impact on our banana industry is bad enough, it gets much worse. Jose Alpuche, C.E.O., Ministry of Agriculture “Corn has been severely impacted, especially in the central region; Spanish Lookout alone reporting losses of seventy-five thousand tons, or approximately forty-two million Belize dollars in losses. In Indian Creek losses for […]
Earlier this year, a small group of caneros protested against ASR/B.S.I.; today in a second demonstration, the numbers had swollen somewhat. The bone of contention is that the miller is passing on to the farmers, part of the financial losses incurred from the Maillard Reaction which has been found in molasses in one tank at […]
