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Those MSME owners were honored today in a small ceremony at the ITVET Compound in Belize City, and we learned abut their pioneering products:

This afternoon, several Belizean entrepreneurs and business folk were honored for their participation in a trade show in Taiwan.

Last month, their home-grown products made a big splash in Taiwan's 2022 Coffee, Tea & Wine Expo.

Dr. Leroy Almendarez - Executive Director, BELTRAIDE
"I could remember that call. When I got that call and I was asked to nominate somebody to attend the wine, tea and coffee expo and I said who do I think, because it was Beltraide that they were seeking representation from. A big part of attending these kinds of expo is the benefits that can be derived from representation and not only because it was for the Asian and Pacific nations, but the number of people who normally would not see your tea, who would not see wine time, who would not see some of the other products that have not reach the international market as yet, would not have been able to see these things and to experience them. I think the other important thing is for us to mention that as we continue to engage in this relationship and continue to build on the relationship, we were able to finalize an economic cooperation agreement between Taiwan and Belize which will provide a lot of benefits and so here are avenues or additional avenues that can be utilized to get our products into that international market, because we continue to seek new market access, but this is great market access."

H.E. David Kuan-Chou Chien - Ambassador of R.O.C (Taiwan) To Belize
"Since the economic cooperation agreement between Taiwan and Belize ECA came into effect on January 15th this year, the trade relations between Belize and Taiwan have become to flourish, the ECA provides preferential treatment for Belizean products including tea agriculture and fish products such as lobster, beef, chicken, juice and sugar and shrimp. In addition, the ECA also grants preferential tariff for Taiwan 33 products to Belize."

H.E. Dr. Candice Pitts - Belize Ambassador to Taiwan
"Some of our Belizean producers are emerging entrepreneurs, yet your products were positioned side by side with products from more developed producers from larger countries. Quite frankly the quality of presentation of your products was unpar. Some of these products even attracted visitors to the Belize booth who expressed interest in now visiting Belize. So thank you for that level of promotion for Belize to your products."

Our news team spoke with three of the awardees.

Mr. Julio Saqui, and his wife, the owners of Che'il Maya Chocolate, recently launched their Cacao Tea, which received major positive feedback in Taiwan.

Julio Saqui - Co-owner, Che'il Maya Chocolate
"The Cacao Tea was actually first produced by myself and I invite other processors to come see what we are doing. So for me it was exciting to learn that our tea has been the one out there that was recognize. Its something that I believe that can grow bigger when we started. Now that we have reach this level, I think we can expect for economic activity to come in, like more orders, sales and stuff like that. But we are going to be getting ready just in the event there is a blow up on sales, but we are ready and we're going to be doing more. For us its exciting, I'm happy and proud that we have come to this level so far."

Reporter
"Where are you guys based?"

Julio Saqui - Co-owner, Che'il Maya Chocolate
"We are based in the Stann Creek District, so if you're going to go to Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve, we're right at the entrance there, that's where we're operating."

Belizean Wine artisan Derrol Vernon and his company, Wine Time, told us that he never expected that his family's love and respect for this beverage would be so warmly embraced both locally and internationally.

Derrol Vernon - Owner, Wine Time
"It's an honour and I am very grateful for it to have the opportunity to display this product, not only to Belize but to the world, because I think it's something that I must share. I think it's a calling for me, its a purpose, a passion and I do it out of love. It's me along with my entire family; my wife, brothers and cousins. We all come together and I have an entire team behind me. It's not only me and it's not about us, it about a product to represent Belize on an international level. I put a lot of pride and dignity behind it. I was making wine from when I was a kid. Thanks to my dad, honour to him. I use to come from school and my chores use to sweetened the wine, go to the market, learn how to cut up the different fruits and stuff that my dad used. So I actually grew into making wines and when I got older, I had the privilege to travel and visit different vineyards and I am self-thought. I lean the Belizean way of making wine along with the American way of producing wine and I came up with this special product Wine Time. I have a thousand support from my Belizean people. I was a little bit hesitant or shy to put it out, I use to give away the wine and the response was that they start to pay me for it. I took all my savings and put it into the product and my family came and assist me."

Another family business that received major publicity from the expo in Taiwan was Oxmul Coffee, a family business out of the Cayo village of San Antonio.

James Mesh - Founder, Oxmul Coffee
"Oxmul Coffee, we started with the idea 4 years ago. Planting coffee we started in 2005 and as a business we started March last year and it's a family-owned business. We live on a farm in western Belize and one of the crops we cultivate is coffee, but what we do we focus on 3 important things; culture, tradition and food security and Oxmul Coffee came into existence the name is Yucatec Mayan which is the original name of the village of San Antonio in the Cayo District. Religion came and the name was changed to San Antonio to honour patron saint Anthony, so the original name Oxmul stayed as a piece of history and the meaning Ox is number 3 and Mul Mayan temple. There were 3 Mayan temples and the village was name after them. Belize is not known for cultivating coffee and we decided to challenge that and now it's proven, its grown, not only in western Belize, but in southern Belize."

The other companies honored today were Gallon Jug, Belize Chocolate Company, Mahogany Chocolate Limited, Travelers Limited, and Marie Sharp, whose successful pepper enterprise was featured last Monday in Forbes Magazine.