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."
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