Tonight we take you back to the Stann Creek District to the Maya King citrus farm where two thousand acres and thousands of trees are in the ground waiting for fertilizer - which farm owner Johnny Zabaneh says he can't afford.
In our time there we also came upon the reason why oranges are now so expensive. Jules Vasquez has the story:
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"Low prices, low prices of citrus not worldwide I mean locally at the factory. We have not been getting what we should get
if it would go by the formula."
The formula was abandoned for a flat per box rate and that's what this interview was kind of all about.
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"The nail in the coffin was when they announced to us, no more formula and we'll give you $14 a box which we never got.
That came up to like $2.90 or something like that."
Jules Vasquez:
"$12.90?"
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"$12.90. Sorry, yes."
"There are hardly any farmers left, for the very reason farmers are disgusted. Farmers are disappointed. Farmers have been
squeezed out of business."
Jules Vasquez:
"How much of your discontent is about your...? It's well known. You do not have a good relationship with your brother,
Eugene Zabaneh and he is the shot caller at CPBL."
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"I am a business man. It does not matter who. There's no love affair and I don't need that to do business with you.
Business is business."
Jules Vasquez:
"But you are rejecting what you believe is his way of doing business."
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"Well, I am not alone in this, so I don't think 100 growers wrong at the same time."
And while we are not sure there are even 100 farmers to attest to that, even if the formula is restored, it's also
difficult to find available labor.
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"Nobody wants to even come to Belize anymore."
Jules Vasquez:
"You mean the labor?"
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"They don't want to come to Belize."
Jules Vasquez:
"Why is this?"
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"Why is this? Because the US is there with the doors flung wide open. In the past I used to have at this time 80 people."
Jules Vasquez:
"80 people picking oranges?"
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"Picking oranges. When people leave their country now, to go looking for jobs, they go to the states. Why come to Belize?
Now the few people that do come through here. They come for work for a little while, make a little money and hightail it."
And many farmers have done the same. Pushed out of the industry and transition to other high yield, high demand crops like
sorghum and corn. Zabaneh meanwhile, is still the lonely king of all he surveys. An empire of half empty trees that haven't
been fertilized in four years.
John Zabaneh, Citrus Farmer
"It's real. It's real. Over $10 million. I am sorry. That's the only thing I'm sorry about that I gone do such a foolish
thing. The government could make an assessment, a pole right now. Who is willing to go grow citrus raise their hand. I don't
think one hand will raise."
But for now, this farmer is keeping his hand all the way up, or at least maybe putting his hand out.
The local price for a sack of oranges is usually about 15 or 16 dollars a sack.
Notably, we heard from one resort owner who said Sunkist oranges are being imported and sell for as much as 6 dollars for a
single orange.
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