Agriculture Minister Clarifies Supposed Shortage of Dairy Products

The country’s dairy business is being improved, as reported by the Ministry of Agriculture. According to Minister Jose Abelardo Mai, his department is cooperating with the ministry of foreign affairs to identify some of the challenges and problems that producers are now dealing with and ways they can be rectified. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, and Immigration, Eamon Courtney, and the Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise were asked to launch a thorough evaluation of the industry in Belize that will further bolster the industry. This includes increasing tariffs on imported milk and reducing or removing the import duty on machinery and equipment.

Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise: “Because we are processing all the milk there’s always a little shortage while the people are bringing in and bringing milk it’s not like we have a surplus which means that there is room for the industry to grow and so as a matter of fact at the end of this month we will launch the dairy industry strategy and we will inform you about that so that you can come and listen to what the strategy is about but we are focusing on increasing the industry by 5% every year under that strategy.”