The Toledo Cacao Festival took place over the weekend in southern Belize, the home of the organic cacao and of the prized Belizean chocolate. The festival attracted throngs of both tourists and Belizeans lured by the delights of chocolate as well as by the many ways to transform the cacao bean into delectable treats. Toledo […]
The first day of class at Horizon Academy began with sixty five students on September seventh, 2009. News Five was at the launch and returned two years later to see the progress of the private primary school. We found that its enrollment has grown and the approach to learning goes beyond books and the chalkboard. […]
Farmers use pesticides to destroy harmful organisms that attack their crops, but those pesticides also pose health risks to humans. As an initiative to increase food safety for the local and export market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries partnered with the Belize Agricultural Health Authority, the Pesticides Control Board and the Republic of China […]
On Tuesday, we reported on the plight of the onions farmers from the northern districts who diversified from sugar cane to onion production only to now find out that the Marketing Board has imported onions from Holland. The farmers are feeling the pain in their pockets since their losses are tremendous. There are debt obligations […]
Close to a million pounds of onions are rotting in fields in northern districts. They are worth millions of dollars. Onion farmers invested heavily years ago to begin production of onions for the local market. Most of them got loans from the banks and credit unions but now that it is time to harvest the […]
As we told you at the top of the news, the government is importing onions from Holland. It is not an unusual practice and is normally carried out when there is a shortage. But plenty farmers in Orange Walk and Corozal are all suffering because the market has been flooded with the imported vegetable. So […]
For months there have been reports that tilapia farms in Belize Rural North have been emanating an unpleasant odor. The farms were set up by the area representative, Edmund “Clear the Land” Castro when he was a Minister of State as a way to create employment in the area. But some residents are complaining that […]
In September Prime Minister Dean Barrow told the nation in his Independence Day speech, that Belize’s thriving livestock industry would begin exporting cattle to neighboring Mexico by the end of this year. That was good and welcomed news for the industry. But where’s the beef? According to cattle farmers, that deadline will not be met; […]
Henry Canton is out. Up until this morning, Canton was the CEO of the Citrus Products of Belize Limited, the CPBL. For months he came under constant fire from his parent company, Citrus Growers Association, and by noon today, he was terminated but had not been served his official marching orders. Canton says it’s illegal […]
The wrangling in the citrus industry is no secret. This year there has been a demonstration, a number of press conferences and legal proceedings. In the eye of the conflict, is Doctor Henry Canton the Chief Executive Officer of the Citrus Products of Belize Limited. The problem is not a new one: The Citrus Growers […]
Over two hundred houses damaged by hurricane Richard, and at least two cruise ship cancellations following the devastation all signal a mounting cost added onto the thirty three point eight million estimate originally given by NEMO. Citrus brings in over one hundred million in foreign exchange annually. The Citrus Industry has announced that its damage […]
There’s more trouble in the Citrus Belt. For months the embattled Citrus Growers Association and its subsidiary, the Citrus Products of Belize have been battling over investments in the C.P.B.L., which is owned by both the CGA and Banks Holdings. That issue has now come full circle for the new board of the C.G.A. Less […]
It was devastated by Hurricane Dean three years ago but the papaya industry is now well poised to recover. Set in the north, Fruta Bomba has been exporting about a hundred thousand tons of the fruit on a weekly basis to the United States and Canada. It is a main source of employment for hundreds […]
Since May, locusts have been spotted in the Belize and northern districts. Farmers in the area report that their fruit and vegetable crops are being systematically destroyed by the insects. The financial losses are significant to the community whose livelihood depends heavily on the sale of the crops. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was up north […]
While the cane farmers were agitated in the north, in the South the annual general meeting of the Citrus Growers Association was subdued over the past weekend. The meeting started in the morning and went well into the afternoon; it was held with relative quiet compared to previous contentious meetings. The growers looked at the […]
In the north temperatures were running high as the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association ran into plenty trouble with its membership. Over a week ago, a number of its vehicles were crow footed by marshals of the court when the Association failed to make good on payments for fertilizers. The debt is being paid off, […]
It’s one of our non-traditional exports, but papaya production has been holding its own in recent times. Last year alone, Belize exported twenty-one point eight million dollars of the fruit to the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. That’s a sizeable production of twenty-four point eight tones which is likely to increase due to […]
The cacao can be traced back to the Mayas who are known to have discovered how to convert the fruit into chocolate. There are numerous creative ways in which the cacao is now put to use: in ice cream, wines and in chocolate of course. It is primarily grown organically, harvested and processed in farms […]
The annual pilgrimage to the Garden City for what has become Belize’s biggest commercial fair lived up to expectations over the past weekend. Thousands headed to the agriculture and trade show and as News Five’s Isani Cayetano found out, there was something for everybody. Isani Cayetano, Reporting The change from being an agrarian expo to […]
The annual general meeting for Citrus Products of Belize Limited held this afternoon in the Pomona Valley was a far cry from what transpired in front of the company’s gates last year. Shareholders were refused entry onto the compound to attend the AGM during the height of tension between the Citrus Growers Association and CPBL. […]
The Citrus Growers Association and Citrus Products of Belize Limited have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle that has left a lingering and sour taste in the citrus industry. It has spilled out of the court and onto the pavement earlier this year when hundreds of workers in the industry protested against CPBL on […]
By now you have heard of the Xate operations that are being undertaken by Eco-Green in the Cayo District. It is a controversial business because primarily Guatemalans cross into the Belizean territory, in forest reserves at that, to harvest the xate that is exported to Europe and the US. So when we reported back in […]
Turning to the controversial Xate trade; they are the leaves from Three Chamaedorea species of palm tree. The leaves are highly valuable in Europe and the United States sought after because of their lovely appearance in floral arrangements. The palms harvested primarily in Mexico and Guatemala; and to poor peasants who earn up to five […]
It’s been months of back and forth between the Citrus Growers Association and its subsidiary, the C.P.B.L. And if you thought you had heard enough, well there was one more briefing today in the citrus saga that reached acidic levels this week. On Wednesday two officials from Banks Holdings Limited, Sir Allen Fields and Richard […]
The Citrus Growers Association organized a massive protest against its subsidiary, Citrus Products of Belize Limited, on Tuesday. Whether or not the protestors were bona fide growers or employees is still unclear, but the demonstration further fuelled the bad blood between the two. Among a long list of issues, the C.G.A. wants desperately to replace […]
