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Belizeans consume 1.2 million pounds of rice a month. And that’s why eyebrows were raised when reports emerged saying that Belize may have to start importing rice because of crops damaged by the Flood of 08. But that was news to the rice farmers in Blue Creek who produce a large quantity of the rice sold in the north and western parts of the country. They say the effect of the flood on their crops was minor and production is on schedule. Yesterday we went to Blue Creek in Orange Walk to see for ourselves.

Keith Swift Reporting,
On a good day, the mill at Circle R atop this hill in Blue Creek churns for a full 24 hours: hulling, separating, and processing enough rice paddy to fill 400 of these one hundred pound sacks with full grain white rice. That’s 40,000 pounds of rice a day – 200,000 pounds a week – and 800,000 pounds of rice a month. That’s more than a half of what the country consumes monthly. In a way, rice is a way of life in Blue Creek.

Edward Reimer, Rice Farmer
“We have a long standing industry here. I think the rice industry here is significant.”

And that’s why these farmers are concerned, some up in arms even, over rumours that government plan to begin importing rice. Circle R processes most of the rice from Blue Creek.

Jacob Neufeld, Director – Circle R Products
“Yes we’re very concerned about that. Right now we are harvesting rice. We started to harvest rice and we hope and we think with what we have we are going to harvest about 700 million pounds of paddy rice. That is enough for the local market for the next four to five months but we also have irrigation where we have 100,000 acres that’s going to be planted in January and that’s only two months from now and that is going to take us through the season.”

That includes this field of dreams for Peter Rempel. Like most farmers, his field was not affected by the flood. So he has 900 acres of rice paddy which he plans to begin reaping within the next month.

Peter Rempel, Rice Farmer
“We will start this week the first 200 acres and in about 6 weeks we will harvest everything.”

Keith Swift,
Did the flood affect your crop?

Peter Rempel,
“No it didn’t. We have just upland and it didn’t affect.”

Keith Swift,
How much rice paddy you expect to yield?

Peter Rempel,
“We expecting a ton and a half per acre. That is about 30 bags per acre.”

Edward Reimer, who is an upland farmer and has his own mill, has already harvested his 200 acres of rice paddy. It adds up to 600,000 pounds or 300 tons which he has in these storage bins waiting to be processed.

Edward Reimer,
“We’re finished our harvest basically. We’re doing the cleanup at this point in time and our total yield came to about three hundred tons. That ends up being 600,000 pounds. By the time you mill it down it will be about 3 and a half to four million pounds of food rice. We are going to be marketing that in the next couple of weeks and hopefully in the next four or five months we will have it all sold.”

And when you add Reimer’s 6 million tons in these bins and Rempel’s field waiting to be harvested to the rice paddy already under production at Circle R’s Mill, Belize Food Supply - the umbrella group for these farmers - says it builds a compelling case as to why there is little or maybe even no need to import.

Keith Swift,
Is there a need to import rice?

Carlos Moreno, Manager Belize Food Supply
“Not now, no need at all. We’re just harvesting and starting to mill the new crop.”

Peter Rempel,
“The whole crop looks like a little bit short. If they do import just for Christmas a few containers that wouldn’t hurt but if they do a lot, that will hurt a lot.”

Keith Swift,
Is the demand being met locally as far as you know?

Carlos Moreno,
“Yes it is being met and that is why there isn’t any need for importation during the years. I think for the last five years Belize has been self-sufficient in rice and I don’t see what will happen this year because we don’t know what the irrigated rice will be like in the crop that is coming.”

Keith Swift,
And so down the road, how far down the road are we looking at when there might be a problem?

Carlos Moreno,
“Well I don’t know. Irrigated is normally harvested sometime in April or May and June and so that’s when they will kick in but to that period I think BFS will be able to supply the market up to then.”

Edward Reimer,
“There is a high level ambition always with unfortunately the Marketing Board is part of agriculture and their income level is directly affected when local production is sufficient they can’t import and that affects their income level and so their ambition is to always try and import and it is really a conflict of interest because they have the responsibility to run the Marketing Board and to run some kind of support system that will help producers produce more rice and you can’t do both."

But these farmers say what they can do is supply the local market and they only want government and the marketing board to give them the opportunity to do so.

We were unable to get official comment from the Belize Marketing and Development Cooperation which distributes rice but a senior official in the Ministry of Agriculture told KREM Radio and TV this morning that rice will not be imported and that it was all just one big misunderstanding. We’ll keep you posted.