Last week we told you about the 2.5 million pounds of Belizean potatoes that were in danger of going to waste, because they were unable to compete with the larger, cheaper, Mexican potatoes that are currently on the market. Normally, by the time the Belizean red potatoes are ready to enter the market, the Ministry of Agriculture cuts back on the importation of the competition. And according to Minister Godwin Hulse, that's exactly what happened, but the problem is that the Mexican potatoes in the country now are contraband. So now, the potato farmers have been forced to reduce their prices to about 75 cents, which they think is unfair. We spoke to the CEO of the Ministry of Agriculture, Jose Alpuche about the situation, and he told us that even at the lowered cost, the farmers should still be able to turn a profit...
Jose Alpuche - CEO, Ministry of Agriculture
"I expected this question but quite frankly look I'll be very honest from the very beginning we had stated that the ministry was attempting to have facilitation to facilitate an agreement between the producers and the marketers. Despite what you hear the Ministry of Agriculture agreed to issuance of permit, the last permit on the 18th of January. We don't issue the permit; we are consulted as it related to whether or not there are domestic supplies. The last permit got our agreement on the 18th of January; I think that lasted for 11 days. But when the difficulty was brought to our attention, the inability of the farmers to sell on the market place, as I said we convened a meeting and that meeting a price was agreed of 75 cents it is for the farmers to sell to the marketers and San Carlos in particular their negotiators went back and they could not get agreement amongst the farmers. Now let me say that the cost for production of potatoes ranges anywhere from about 55 to 65 cents per pound. So at 75 cents a pound the farmers would have making a profit not maybe the profit they had hoped for but they chose to not sell at that price and in effect I don't know who was advising them about that but they chose not to sell and some of the potatoes indeed did spoil. There's not much we can do about that, it is their choice whether they would want to sell their potatoes and to what price but I can tell you that at the 75 cent price they would have made some money. The other related problem is if they don't release their domestic production on the market, what will fill the void? Contraband and while we can do our best to try and stem the contraband, if they don't want to have their produce on the market, the unfortunate result is we will almost be encouraging contraband. Look we really have to have better dialogue with them but they also have to understand that we do have a market where we have to balance the interest of the farmers first and foremost but also too we have to balance the consumer’s interest too."
Alpuche also said that the dialogue between the farmers and the Ministry needs to continue so that a better solution can be found. Reports say that farmers in San Carlos have been able to sell their two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of potatoes.
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