Minister (Agriculture and Fisheries)

Q-Why did you chose to be a minister?

A-Well in our system of Gov’t the prime minister has the authority to place his members in various ministries. When I began in this gov’t I began in the Ministry of Works then I went to Health and just recently I got transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. It’s a month ago and so far it’s exciting

Q- Agriculture is over 60% of the Belizean economy. How is agriculture doing?.

A-In terms of fisheries we’re encouraging deep sea fishing. It has to be doing in cooperation with the co-operatives and in compliance with the environmental laws. In terms of the agro industry we have a lot of areas for investment. Right now if we have any foreign company who would like to purchase a Soy Bean manufacturing facility the gov’t has one available in the northern part of the country they can buy it outrightly. We’re about to commission it shortly.

Q- The environmental policy is very important. You’re part of the Kyoto Protocol. Well in the protocol there’s lots to respect . What are you doing to make sure the environment is protected?

A- In answering your question is that all big projects must have an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) We don’t do monitoring of the EIA. There’s an environmental department under the Ministry of Natural Resources, they do all the monitoring and surveillance. Mr. Wade sits on the NEAC (National Environmental Assessment Committee which will review the EIA and all those protocols.

Q-It’s a good moment for agriculture in Belize. There’s mass growth .What’s your future plans?

A-Well certainly I think the Soy Bean has a good growth potential also the production of ethanol and co-generation. We have three main segments as I said-one is the traditional which is sugar, citrus and bananas besides those the ministry has to diversify into bio products like ethanol. We have to look at agro processing, doing the dehydrated bananas. Instead of just selling the concentrate there’s scope to do the bottle juices in various flavours. Under the non-traditional e.g. papayas and peppers we can tap into the non-traditional market in the U.S.A. We know there’s a big population of what we called the ethnic market s that produces cocoa yam, cassava, dasheen, pineapples. We can do mango purees and all these things. Last but not least we have things that we called niche market such as organics. We can grow organic rice, in fact we’re exporting organic cacao to the UK.

Q-How are you competing, in price and quality or how?

A- In quality I think we have established that as a comparative advantage, because Brazil can produce cheaper papayas than us but they don’t have that quality. In the case of cacao Belize gets a premium price because our cacao has a special aroma

Q-What is the incentive for international investors. For e.g., a Belizean girl that wants her own business and me, I’m a New Yorker trader that wishes to own a fish farm in Belize. Do you offer any facilities for both?

A-Well in terms of the shrimp we know it’s highly competitive. We also offer EPZ status (Export Processing Zone

Q- How stable is the market in Belize right now?

A- We have a stable dollar. Very democratic. We had elections in 1984, 89+ There’s no political interference in the judiciary.

Q- What’s your marketing strategy for the European Union?

A-Along with BELTRAIDE we’re working on a strategy to develop a Belize brand. Our citrus is bought by Minute Maide, these big companies to give it great flavour. We export beans to CARICOM. CARICOM is another market. Guyana and Belize are the two biggest agriculture producers. A lot of our livestock goes to Guatemala.. A strategy also means we have to meet requirements. Through BAHA (The Belize Agricultural Authority) we can certify that all our products meet the minimum standards in terms of the minimal residues and the standards and health aspect. What we would like is investment in a canning plant we don’t have any of that.

Q-Is there a specific message to investors?

A-Basically the country is open to investors. If an investor wants to come and open another sugar mill in Libertad then we would allow them to grow some sugarcane. Ordinarily we don’t allow no foreign company to grow sugarcane that is reserved for the locals.