Belize and Mexico Strengthen Agricultural Trade Ties with Focus on Cattle and Coconut Exports

Belize has made progress with trade arrangements with Mexico concerning two agricultural exports: cattle and coconuts. Minister of Agriculture, Jose Abelardo Mai, was in Mexico this week to meet with the country’s Agriculture Secretary, Dr. Julio Berdegué Sacristán. At yesterday’s meeting, Dr. Berdegué expressed Mexico’s interest in importing all of Belize’s cattle and noted that efforts are underway to grant Belize market access for exporting green coconuts in the short term. Minister Mai told Love News that discussions about cattle focused on amending export protocols in light of the threat posed by the New World Screwworm, which endangers the region’s livestock. Meanwhile, a risk assessment will be conducted for green coconuts to ensure that their importation from Belize does not negatively impact Mexican coconut farmers.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “So he said to us that there’s enough reasons for Mexico to believe that we have done a good job and that they’re prepared to make adjustments to the protocol. Matter of fact, the protocols to me seem that it will be easier to meet now because when you put too much stringent measures in place, the informal trade tends to overcome the formal trade because of the stringent measures and all the controls you’re putting in place. You’re putting in so difficult that it is easier to contraband than to export formally. And so they have realized and said to us well we are prepared to make adjustments to the protocol so that we can make it easier for you to export cattle. We have been given the green light export coconuts in a particular form. We were asking that they allow us to export green coconut with husk. We had requested this from them from April of this year. They had not responded to what I said and there may be enough reason for that because they were going to elections and probably didn’t want to commit before an election. So they waited for after the election. Now that we’ve met, we ask Dr. Berdague if he would be prepared to grant that market access. The first step to market access is to allow for the pest reassessment to be done by Mexico and then tell us what we have, what levels we have and what we can do. So he said on one week you will have a response from us. So I believe Belize is in a very good position when we do the risk assessment to show that Belize does not pose any threat as far as phytosanitary. And so I believe that that puts us in a very very important position for trade with Mexico.”

Minister Mai stated that increased cattle exports and the introduction of coconut exports will benefit thousands of small farmers and bolster Belize’s economy.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture:  “In Belize we have at this time close to 20,000 acres of coconuts. With this achievement, we’re not fully there yet but I am hopeful at the will, once they allow us to do the risk assessment, or they do the assessment, that the industry will grow. Once there’s a market for commodity the production grows. When the production grows, export grows. When the export grows, foreign exchange grows. When foreign exchange grows employment grows. And so that’s a win win for us in coconut industry. In terms of livestock industry, if you recall in 2020, when we opened the market for livestock the economy grew tremendously. The agriculture sector grew by 24%. It shows you that the importance of cattle farming is as important as any major cash crop especially comparing to sugarcane. If sugarcane is 140 million, then cattle industry is between 90 million and 100 million dollars. And the important thing is that much of the cattle farmers own 50 head of  cattle or  less with their small holdings. It means that this is a filter effect that goes down all the way to the small farmers. It’s not the big farmers that are getting, or 10 farmers that are benefiting. We’re talking about close to 5,500 cattle farmers. And so it’s very important from an economic standpoint for us, for improving the livelihood of cattle farmers. And so I think the economic impact is really something to think about it. It is going to be a win-win for Belize.”

Mai led a delegation to Mexico that included his chief advisor, Hugh O’Brien; Jaime Briceño, Belize’s Trade Ambassador to Mexico; and Abram Garcia, a representative from Belize’s coconut private sector. He is scheduled to return to Belize today.