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Hulse also took today's opportunity to address the cattle industry's diminished performance, which the Statistical Institute of Belize identified yesterday. You'll remember that according to the SIB, cattle production was down by 69% in the second quarter of this year.

Well, the Agriculture Minister said that it is not the production that's down. According to him, it's the illegal, cross-border trade of cattle that came to a standstill. Here's how he spun it:

Hon. Godwin Hulse - Ministry of Agriculture

"This Ministry and the Government of Belize absolutely, unconditionally opposes any attempt to ship cattle illegally on informally. That door has been closed. We cannot try to smuggle animals into our neighbouring republic for several reasons. First of all, they closed their border, and we closed our border. Secondly, there's COVID, raging, and we've already passed legislation for border jumpers serious penalties. We cannot and will not support that in any form fashion or other. People caught doing that, there will be hell to pay. But, we recognize the plight of farmers, cattle farmers especially. So, the Ministry worked diligently together with the BLPA to try to get the legal export up and going. And at the highest level of government, at the Ministerial level, I communicated with the Minister in Guatemala, and all his team at highest sanitary and phytosanitary levels. And we were able to make to the first official shipment of 27 animals in Guatemala, I think it was about 2 Mondays ago. And there is already on the table another large order. With respect to Mexico, we are attempting to do - and hopefully, we will be successful in getting 246 animals into Mexico next week. It's the first time in years and years into Mexico. So, we are not going to countenance and tolerate anybody who attempts to punch a hole into that and tries to smuggle some animals into Guatemala. There will be hell to pay. At the same time, we cannot stop the movement of animals within the country. So, when animals are moving within the country, even within the Cayo District. There is, by law, a requirement for a movement certificate. The transporter has to have in his possession, when the police stop him, a movement certificate that authorizes the movement, to make doubly sure. And there are some farms in the area bordering Guatemala. We cannot disenfranchise those farmers from buying animals the way they were doing, but we have said to the BLPA, we have said to the police that before that movement certificate is issued, so there is a question that this some sort of sneaky movement, let the Ministry be advised so that we can advise the Ministry of National Security that those animals will be moving, and they'll be going to Farm X. We are tuberculosis and brucellosis-free in this country. We want to maintain that high standard because that will make us competitive down the road. Quality, quality, quality, and when it goes the legal route, the animals are properly quarantined, properly inspected by vets on both sides, etc. We have a brand of confidence. We had a very lengthy conversation with my counterpart from Antigua. We're trying to get slaughtered animals from one of our facilities into Grenada. One of the complaints that Grenada had, the vet from Grenade had. One of the complaints is that Belize trades in illegal animals and they don't know what diseases may have been introduced. Do you see how far-reaching that goes? So, we have had to debunk that fully. So, let's not attempt it."