In news regarding the destruction in the north, this morning, the Republic of China on Taiwan officially handed over a cheque valued at four hundred thousand Belize dollars towards the hurricane relief efforts. Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize, Ting Joseph Shih presented the money to Prime Minister Said Musa this morning during a brief ceremony in […]
Official estimates of the damage caused by Hurricane Dean are at best preliminary, put together in a process better suited to requesting foreign aid than as a blueprint for rebuilding. With regard to agricultural losses the experience is at once both simple and complex. Simple because in the case of papayas there is barely a […]
From the border Marion travelled to another centre of economic activity, this time in the agricultural sector. And while the Free Zone merchants will soon be back in business, their cousins in the papaya fields will wait far longer. The papaya processing facility, belonging to Belize Fruit Packers, just outside Corozal Town, may have taken […]
The first stage of government’s free textbook programme is in full swing as the first shipment of school supplies arrived in Belize earlier this week. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin stopped by the Belize District’s Education Centre this morning to find out how the distribution is going. Judy Diego, Manager, District Education Centre “It has been […]
Meanwhile, police have detained two suspects in connection with Monday morning’s robbery of a gas station in Ladyville. Sources indicate that at least fifteen thousand of the forty thousand dollars taken in the heist has also been recovered. Charges are expected to be filed tomorrow.
For centuries agriculture has been the economic backbone of the Caribbean Basin. But the global economy is rapidly changing and in the current volatile trading environment today’s breadbasket is tomorrow’s empty basket. This week the region’s experts are meeting in Belize to discuss strategies for success in a turbulent market. Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting The participants, […]
It’s not a day that usually makes the headlines, but on Tuesday, the sugar cane processing season officially ended. For cane farmers and the sugar company, it was a year of extremes. This afternoon, officials explained that the while Tower Hill factory received a record one point two million tonnes of cane, the deliveries were […]
This week, Belize became the third country in Central America to sign onto a regional initiative that should modernise our ability to fight threats to our agriculture. According to a release issued by the Government Press Office, under the auspices of OIRSA, the International Regional Organization for Health in Agriculture, on Monday Minister Vildo Marin […]
The banana industry has received more assistance from the European Union to compensate for declining price supports. Two contracts, totalling over one point one million Belize dollars, were awarded locally for rehabilitation of farms. The first, granted to the University of Belize, was for six hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars to supply four hundred and […]
This weekend thousands of Belizeans will flock to Belmopan for the annual National Agriculture and Trade Show. And if anyone can vouch for whether farming conforms to this year’s theme of making you healthy, wealthy, and wise, it would be the Farmers of the Year. The 2007 awardees hail from the Belize, Corozal, and Stann […]
Like the scientific theory called global warming, bird flu is one of those impending disasters that we are told is not a matter of “if”, but “when”. Today the folks who will have to deal most directly with the problem met to refine their plans. Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting Avian influenza, better known as bird flu, […]
At their last gathering, shouting matches, fights for the microphone, and mass resignations set the precedent for meetings of the Citrus Growers Association at an all time low. But word out of the south tonight is that Saturday’s Annual General Meeting of the association was the model of discipline and democracy. Of course it helped […]
Don’t look now but one of our most newsworthy yet depressing regular news events will be taking place on Saturday. That’s right, yet another fractious meeting of the Citrus Growers Association. Tomorrow’s gathering figures to be no less controversial than those in the recent past, the only difference being that the faction that used to […]
Following the aborted February third annual general meeting of the Citrus Growers Association, today the new management committee announced the date for the continuation of the session. According to a press release issued this morning, the rest of the thirty-ninth A.G.M. of the C.G.A. will be held on the tenth of March, starting at nine-thirty […]
An outbreak of common sense appears to be infecting residents of the Stann Creek Valley as the new management committee of the Citrus Growers Association seeks to leave behind the acrimony of the past. According to a release from the C.G.A., the committee, whose membership was reduced from nine to six following the resignations of […]
By now the public has become well acquainted with the long running circus that has been performing in the Stann Creek Valley for the better part of forty years. But make no mistake: while the unruly antics of citrus growers may at times be laughable, behind the comedy is a hundred million dollar a year […]
It is by far Belizean’s number one source of protein, not to mention our favourite food … but as of today, the cost of chicken is going up. According to a release from the Belize Agro-Productive Sector Group the average price of whole dressed chicken will rise twenty-two cents per pound, from one seventy-two to […]
Xate: it’s a nondescript jungle plant that Belizeans would likely never know about were it not for the fact that Guatemalans routinely and illegally cross our borders to steal it. But this long lasting source of greenery, used in floral arrangements around the world, is now being harvested by Belizeans. News Five Kendra Griffith reports […]
In news from the Stann Creek Valley, the showdown in the citrus industry is now focussing on a single day next month. A release from the Citrus Growers Association indicates that its annual general meeting will now be moved from February tenth to the third. That means the A.G.M. and the special general meeting called […]
Throughout what has become a long and bitter period of turmoil in the citrus industry, growers have debated the pros and cons of a twenty-five million dollar investment in the grower-owned processing company. But while the controversy has raged, the new shareholders, who control forty-six point five percent of the company, have simply been seen […]
There was a time not that long ago when Belizean exports could be summed up in one word: sugar. But while today’s economy is far more diversified, as News Five’s Alyssa Noble discovered, you can never have too many baskets for those precious exported eggs. Alyssa Noble, Reporting Whether its sugar, citrus or bananas, agriculture […]
And then there was one, one spot in Channel Five’s KTV competition that is. Five contestants did their best but in the end there could only be single winner. Here?s host William Neal with results. William Neal, Host of KTV ?Our winner for tonight is contestant numberrrrr three.? (Dejon Tucker singing ?Hound Dog?) The last […]
The banana industry got an injection of chemicals this month, courtesy of the Ministry of National Development and the European Union. According to a press release issued today, the first two shipments of fungicides arrived in Belize earlier this week and will be used in the ongoing control of the Black Sigatoka disease. We understand […]
The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the winners of the 2006 farmers of the year competition. Senior farmer of the year is Toledo’s Nicanor Requena. The twenty-seven year old works forty-five acres near San Pedro Columbia, using the land for agro-forestry, fruit trees, and cacao as well as raising cattle and pigs for sale as […]
There is good news to report from Belize’s citrus belt, as prices on the world market continue to climb and forecasts indicate they should remain strong for at least the next couple of years. The price of grapefruit, which reached an all-time high last season at around nine dollars and eighty-two cents per box, is […]
