And when the Kendall Bridge was washed away, it cut off all access to and from southern Belize….and that has plenty to do with the price of rice. Rice from the Toledo District cannot get to Belize – add to that the fact that many rice fields in the north were water-damaged, and then throw in to the mix that rice was already scarce before the storm hit, and…….you’ve got a full – on rice crisis. It’s a cocktail of problems, but many fingers are pointing at the Belize Marketing Board, which is the main distributor of locally produced rice. Jacqueline Godwin went there today, looking for answers.

Roque Mai, Managing Director – Marketing Board
“What has been happening is that rumours have been that Marketing Board is holding back the rice but we have not been holding back, we have not been holding back on the rice. We have been selling.”

Selling but in limited quantities to customers in Belize City, Orange Walk and the Toledo District that is because there is an acute shortage in supply.

Roque Mai,
“So sad to say that we had a flooding up in the southern part of Belize and the bridge was washed away and then we cannot bring rice from Big Falls where our mill is. But at this moment what they are doing now is selling the rice to the people in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts. “We would have had rice this week and everything would have run normal here in Belize City but being the fact that the bridge washed away, the Kendall Bridge washed away that is why we can’t get rice.”

In order to meet the demand the Belize Marketing Board recently negotiated with and on Wednesday started buying rice from Blue Creek farmers through Belize Foods Supply. But it has not been enough.

Roque Mai,
“They supplied us with two hundred sacks but that two hundred sack is a little bit, it’s nothing, we need like one thousand sacks right now. I called them this morning, they suppose to have dropped some rice, deliver some rice to us at the Marketing Board but apparently they told me that their mill is not functioning well and until tomorrow so I am asking the people in general, the consumers to please bare patience with us until we find a solution so that Marketing Board can supply more rice.

Like I said we managed to get just two hundred sacks from them and we already sold that out. We need more right now so I would like the business community as well, the consumers to bare patience with us. I know it is difficult they their rice to consume. We are getting now only one hundred pounds so that is why we are having difficulty in supplying to the person who wants five pounds but right now I have set aside two sacks to pack only at five pounds so we can sell the walk in person.

And the wholesalers they want one hundred sacks but we cannot give them one hundred sacks and we have some people, some housewives, they want a twenty pound but we do not have twenty pounds at the moment. They do not send us twenty pounds, they just send us hundred pounds.”

According to Mai what also contributed to the shortage is that for a while the rice farmers up north had stopped selling, holding out for an increase in the controlled price:

Roque Mai,
“Their concern is agro chemicals and fuel hence they put a proposal to the government and they wanted a price increase. So they looked at it and you know the longer government was taking, the longer they were holding back the rice. People who are not our customers began to purchase from us and in other words, our regular customers started to get affected because the customers that they had started to come in and purchase from us which we can’t just tell them no. We are selling but we minimize it, one sack, two sacks, or ten sacks the most.”

A temporary increase came on Tuesday. It was announced by the Minister of Economic Development and Consumer Protection Erwin Contreras. The new wholesale price in Belize City is one dollar and fifteen cents and the retail price is one dollar and thirty one cents per pound. But already there are reports that some retailers have been selling rice for as much as one dollar and seventy five cents per pound.

Erwin Contreras, Minister of Economic Development
“We have asked the Minister of Police along with the Minister of Agriculture to assist us, the Consumer Protection Agency to monitor the situation and we will be enforcing the laws as it regards the controlled price. We know that a lot of unscrupulous business people have been taking advantage of the situation and we will be taking this matter seriously.”

Roque Mai,
“We are here just to do business and like I said we bought 200 sacks of rice from the Mennonite community, the farmers rather, and then we sell it. It has finished. I need a thousand sacks. As we speak I need a thousand sacks of 100 pounds.”

Mai is hopeful that by next week the situation with the supply of rice will be stabilized if not he said they may have to import to help meet the demand.

People who were waiting in line to buy their one hundred pound sack of rice complained to 7NEWS that the price had increased from $98 to $126. Mai explained the hike is because they now purchase rice from the Mennonite farmers at one dollar and twenty one cents per pound and they could not afford to continue selling at the old price because then they would operate at a loss. Information to 7NEWS this evening is that though a price increase was hammered out between government and the Mennonite rice producers – that has fallen apart just as rice shipments were supposed to start coming through. As we understand it, the producers rejected the agreed upon increase at the last minute. Government, we are told is examining its options.