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And tonight, PUP Shadow Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai says that based on a consumption of what the Ministry says is one hundred thousand pounds of potatoes weekly, the farmers stand to lose substantially. Here's how he put it today:..

Hon. Jose Mai, OW South Area Representative
"That from the amount of potatoes planted which is in this press release: 348 acres - 3.75 million pounds of potatoes. Consuming 100,000 pounds per week we will have potatoes for 8.9 months of the year. When you know that the nature, because the nature of potatoes are high in starch. You cannot store for more than 3 months. So again, I will lay the blame where it has to be. The coordination of production was horribly done. The importation of seeds is monitored and controlled by the ministry of agriculture, BAHA included. So while you cannot stop anybody from planting pototoes, but you can guide the farmer. Why would you allow farmers to plant 348 acres of potatoes when you know that we have limited storage capacity?"

Reporter
"But because of over production you're saying poor coordination. Inevitably you believe there will be losses?"

Hon. Jose Mai
"Absolutely. there are no way farmers can store this amount of potatoes, no way. So there will be tremendous loss in the field and in the prices going down."

Reporter
"How many thousands or tens of thousands of pounds do you feel will go to waste this year with this projection you have here 3.9 million pounds?"

Hon. Jose Mai
"I suspect like half, because potato is like this: you put it in your storage, but every day you got to be taking out the rot potatoes. So every day you take out 2, 3, 4, 5 buckets of potatoes. Because if you leave it in there everything will rot. So every day you have spoilage going on and the market is so saturated. There is going to be losses in the millions. You are talking about 2.4 million dollars. To a rich individual its nothing, but to small farmers, there is all year."

Mai proposes selling surplus potatoes to Mexico - which is unlikely to happen.

Potatoes are produced as follows: 280 acres were planted in the Cayo District, 35 acres in the Orange Walk District, and 33 acres in the Corozal District.