We also asked Minister Hulsse about the recent controversy over potatoes. First, the potato farmers of Orange Walk South complained that they couldn't find a market for their potatoes. And then their PUP area rep says they couldn't sell all the potatoes. Hulse responded today:
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"This ministry has sat with potato producers, before my time and since my time, to try to get this to come to a balance. The problem is one, we don't have the necessary storage and harvests come in at the same time. But remember that we also have to balance consumption with production and you can't have Belizean people calling for we have a shortage of potato and then we have a glut. So we try to even that out and that is what the ministry has been doing. So I do not at all weigh in on this thing that it is the ministry's fault. The farmers we have met with; we've spoke to them. One of the things I will say is we are not going to get into this control of price and control; this is a commercial activity. We have left the stakeholders to try to sort out the matter. The last thing you want to do is to spoon feed people. This issue came up last year, it came up the year before. trust me, we are working to try to even out the situation for them."
Reporter
"Will a lot of farmers be left with totting potatoes, because 3.57 million pounds is too much for the market to consume?"
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"Where did he get the 3.57 million pounds? I have no idea about that."
Reporter
"Its in the release that Mr. Harrison sent out. Belize consumes an average of 100,000 pounds of potatoes weekly. 3.57 million is you calculate 100,000 pounds consume weekly, about half of this will spoil, because potatoes can only be stored for so long."
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"I said that already. That is an issue we are having and what will you do about that? Your consumption has to match what is being produced."
Reporter
"But should your field officers have foreseen that you all are producing too much potato - a lot of you will lose money, you need to reduce your production or the size of you're planting, so that we do not have a glut that will requires us to throw away a lot of potatoes."
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"You and I know, extension services have been active and we've had a pretty good extension service, but which farmer you are going to tell out there in Belize what to grow and what not to grow and when. This is how it works. Your neighbour plants, you plant."
Reporter
"You can regulate the importation of the seed."
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture
"Its a matter about the price, but here again you are talking regulation. We are not going to get into the regulation of that. What we are trying to do is to ensure that there are enough information that people would be able to manage their markets accordingly."
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