Ministry of Agriculture Analyzes Local Goods Production for Cost Reduction

The Ministry of Agriculture recently completed an informal analysis on the goods produced in Belize.  According to Minister Aberlardo Mai, this analysis was done with an aim to see how production costs can be lowered which could possibly benefit consumers.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “We just finished my policy unit in the ministry just completed the cost of production of certain goods which I asked them to do because the inflation has been constant. I mean fertilizers increased by 300%. The agro inputs I mean they are so high and so farmers then have a new cost of production but they will tell you what their cost is but we send our technicians to do the cost of production and I saw the cost of two products. And I believe that it’s still, while the products went up, the agro inputs, I do not see reason why we should increase. I don’t see a huge jump in a per-pound basis. I still have to analyze it well. I just reviewed it. I didn’t go into the details but I saw the final figure and I still have to do some research or question some of the numbers them but from what I saw, I don’t see that there has been a big increase in these two commodities. But that’s only preliminary, I need to look more carefully, look at the details and ask some of the numbers and so on.”