Those big numbers reported by the Tourism Board for the year 2000 were apparently no fluke. Airport arrival figures for the first month of this new year show a solid eight point five percent increase over a year ago. Just over twelve thousand bonafide tourists landed at the P.G.I.A. in January, more than any January […]
It is Belize’s fastest growing major industry. And when figures for the year 2000 are tallied, the business of shrimp farming should take its place along with sugar, citrus, bananas and tourism at the commanding heights of the nation’s economy. News 5’s Jose Sanchez was on hand in the Stann Creek District for the dedication […]
The final figures are in and, as predicted, the year 2000 was a big one for tourism. Despite the dislocation caused by Hurricane Keith in October and November, bonafide tourist arrivals at the Philip Goldson International Airport totaled a record one hundred and thirty-one thousand, six hundred and thirty-four. The month of December also showed […]
The current season will not be a good one for the Sugar industry. Not only did farmers have to face a drop on international markets, but they have also had crops damaged from the floodwaters of Hurricane Keith. Minister of Sugar Industries Valdemar Castillo told journalists today that government is doing all it can to […]
After a number of false starts a contract has finally been signed for the establishment of a tourism village at Belize City’s Fort Point. The agreement between the government, Tourism Board and a private group headed by businessman Mike Feinstein, was delayed by six months of wrangling over details, but construction is now slated to […]
Once upon a time, if two Belizeans met in December in the supermarket, chances are it was San Francisco de Assis. And while plenty of our people can still be found stretching their dollars in Chetumal, a whole lot more Mexicans are depositing their pesos south the Hondo. Ann-Marie reports from that rough and tumble […]
It may not be an eighty million dollar a year business like sugar, but the people who grow hot peppers are beginning to make their mark. Last year Belize exported five hundred and sixty thousand pounds of fiery peppers to the United States and this year the amount is expected to rise to six hundred […]
Sugar may be Belize’s biggest agricultural product, but the opening of this year’s crop will not begin on schedule. Cane farmers are unhappy with the estimated price of just over thirty-eight dollars per ton of cane and the management of the Corozal and Orange Walk divisions of the Cane Farmers Association have notified both Government […]
This season’s citrus harvest is in full swing and farmers from Cayo to Toledo are busy both reaping and planting. But while the industry is coming off one record year of production and headed toward another, the gloom of low world prices hangs over the fields like and early morning fog. Projected prices for the […]
It comes as no surprise, but officials of the Belize Tourism Board report that as a result of Hurricane Keith, tourist arrivals are way down. The latest monthly figures from the Philip Goldson International Airport show that arrivals declined by thirty percent compared to October of 1999. Minister of Tourism, Mark Espat is optimistic, however, […]
Since the Commercial Free Zone opened in 1995, it has been expanding very rapidly. Today approximately sixty trucks and over three thousand cars enter the compound daily. Shoppers are mainly Mexicans from the State of Quintana Roo, although it is open to all foreigners. As a result of the enterprise about nine hundred jobs have […]
This morning official ceremonies marking the opening of a soybean processing plant were held in Spanish Lookout. The plant now opens a new area in agricultural production for Belizean farmers and promises to boost foreign exchange in the country. Presently Belize imports approximately twenty million dollars worth of soybean products and another ten million dollars […]
Since the 1960’s sugar has been the engine driving the Belizean economy. And although today’s economic situation is far more diversified than forty years ago, sugar retains its place as the nation’s number one agricultural activity. To insure the industry’s continued viability in an era of shrinking international subsidies, government and the Cane Farmers Association […]
Those high fuel prices cited by Belize City bakers could have been much higher. A release from Government indicates that the last shipment of imported petroleum products came at a substantially increased cost than the previous delivery. If those costs had been passed on to consumers it would have resulted in thirteen cents per gallon […]
A story we ran earlier in the week on recovery efforts in San Pedro utilized a shot of fishermen harvesting a post-Keith boatload of lobster. But the picture may have been misleading. While the lobsters may be plentiful, most commercial fishermen at Caye Caulker no longer have the means to catch them. Jose Sanchez, Reporting […]
At the opening of yesterday’s newscast we spotlighted that most basic of political exercises: angry citizens descending on their elected representative to get themselves a bigger slice of government’s pie. Tonight we look at a process that is not all that dissimilar. The only difference is that the pie is much bigger and those at […]
While Belizean farm production will take a temporary nosedive due to the hurricane, one local food processor has bucked the trend and on Tuesday will begin to export his product. Benque Viejo Snack Company will ship its first container of Luna plantain chips to Jamaica, where it will be marketed by Grace Kennedy. The snack […]
One week after hurricane Keith put a licking on the northern third of Belize there is both good and bad news. The good news is that disaster relief is well underway; the bad news is that economic and human losses continue to mount as inland flooding becomes more widespread. On the positive side a team […]
The wind, rain and rising waters have impacted more than just the residents of northern Belize. Sugar, the economic mainstay of the region, not to mention the entire nation, has also taken a hit. An official team representing all facets of the sugar industry did a flyover of cane lands this morning and their report […]
Sugar is not the only major industry to be touched by Keith. Tourism of course will suffer on San Pedro and Caye Caulker and so will another economic activity: fishing. Bobby Usher of the Northern Fisheries Cooperative told News Five that his co-op’s receiving station at Caye Caulker has been destroyed and so have most […]
The Central Bank report referred to by the Leader of the Opposition raises major questions about the government’s economic policies. While the deliberate expansionist thrust of those policies has been clearly enunciated, principally by Budget Minister Ralph Fonseca, they have never before come under attack from a source as credible as the Central Bank itself–or […]
On the 10th of September Belizean motorists who pulled up to their favourite gas station were greeted with news of higher prices at the pump. Not even one holiday later drivers are going to get it again. With the acquisition cost of refined fuels rising in concert with world crude oil markets, the latest round […]
The delivering of the State of the Nation address on the steps of the Administration Building in Belmopan seems to have become a People’s Untied Party tradition. This morning, speaking before a joint session of the House and Senate, Prime Minister Said Musa used the occasion to paint an upbeat picture of where the nation […]
For most Belizeans the Corozal Free Zone is a tantalizing piece of forbidden fruit, a place where the sweet taste of cut rate fashion, duty free luxuries and dollar beer is officially denied to all but a fortunate few. But to planners in Belmopan the zone is ripe for the transition from foreign exchange nightmare […]
This weekend, Expo Belize 2000 kicks off at the SJC gymnasium. This year the two-day event promises to be bigger with more displays and giveaways for the millennium show. The exposition is held to highlight what is available on the Belizean market and it is also an excellent opportunity for consumers to save money with […]
