And while Mai is both a cattleman and a Minister, photos show that he was accompanied by the Prime Minister's brother, Investment Ambassador Jaime Briceno, and one of his companies also have significant acreages of coconuts under cultivation.
So, bravo for them that a very favorable coconut exportation deal was also worked out with Mexico:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"Mexico has agreed to us to export coconut in a certain form. We have been saying, can we do it in another way, a way that will cost us less makila, less labor, and can make us competitive. We have asked them since April to do a risk assessment, and they hadn't..."
"During that time, they were going to elections, so I guess that the technocrats didn't want to commit until there was an election. Now, the election has happened, there's a new minister, and we said to them kindly respond, and Dr. Berdegue was very firm, he said, you know, we will respond to you in one week, we will look at the pest risk analysis, and I'm sure after they do that, Belize will be in a very good position to say to them, see, we have no diseases, no pests of quarantine importance that can affect your agriculture, that you will risk anything. There's no risk. And so I am confident that we will do well when that risk assessment is done."
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