Belice: Thousands of pounds of potatoes rotting in Belize
Belizean potato farmers are in crisis mode because their product is rotting in the fields. It’s due to Mexican imported potatoes which were still on the market when the Belize crop became ready for harvest.
Now, this is the balancing act that the Ministry of Agriculture has to do every year with key vegetable crops which are grown locally, but not in sufficient quantities for year round supply.
So, that’s when those white potatoes are imported, but when the local red potatoes hit the market, the Ministry of Agriculture has to make sure that there’s no white potatoes there to compete with them. And that’s because given the choice, most consumers would prefer the larger, cheaper imported white and brown potatoes.
Many of those farmers are in the San Carlos area of Orange Walk South - and the area representative who is also an agronomist, says that the farmers are in distress and government has to do something to make sure they don’t suffer a total loss of crop.
Hon. Abelardo Jose Mai, PUP OW South Area Representative:
"Every day that passes, every hour that passes, farmers are losing their potatoes. So I don’t know why it is taking so long to come to reach an agreement - meanwhile, the famers desperately have to sell. So they are selling at whatever substandard prices they can afford and you are selling left, right and center. So who will end up suffering? The farmers, selling at a very low price and I think it’s unfair."
"The best way to store potatoes is in a cold storage. But there is tremendous cost to that. Warehousing is very expensive in Belize, especially cold storage. So he wants these people to store potatoes in cold storage? It will cost a lot of money. I don’t think it’s practical, I don’t think it’s feasible."
Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/171283/Thousands-of-pounds-of-potatoes-rotting-in-Belize
