Onion Farmers Voice Concerns as Agriculture Ministry Holds Northern Belize Meeting

The Ministry of Agriculture convened its first official meeting with onion farmers across northern Belize.  The meeting afforded the opportunity for government representatives to update stakeholders on the progress of this year’s onion production. It was also an occasion used for farmers to voice pressing concerns over challenges affecting their livelihoods. At the meeting, the group of farmers presented a letter outlining several requests, including but not limited to the implementation of stricter import regulations, prioritization of local produce in the market, and providing financial and technical assistance to farmers to bolster their operations. Love News spoke with Director of Extension Services at the Ministry of Agriculture, Andrew Mejia, on how that discussion turned out. 

Andrew Mejia, Director of Extension Services, Ministry of Agriculture: “It’s an annual meeting where we come together, the Ministry, our marketing arm of our ministry and the farmers look at onions. The onion production is coming literally like now and the farmers want to ensure that they will be able to sell their product. They have worked hard in the field, they have toiled the soil and it’s only fair that they be given the opportunity to sell their product. So we’re here this morning to present the figures to them. For them to see which district is producing and what they’re producing and what will be the total production. Now from that the farmers will be able to ask questions as they have a right to do. Ask us the tough questions, we’re here to answer them as best as we could. There are certain production practices that also we would like to ask them to ensure that they data that they’re giving us the data that we’re presenting to at the Ministry level to ensure that when we stop importation that we actually have the product to supply the local market. The idea here is to ensure that one, the farmers can sell their product and two to ensure that consumers can get the product in their kitchen.”
 

A central issue raised during the discussions was the ongoing importation of onions, which farmers say has led to market saturation. Many farmers argued that the influx of imported onions is severely undercutting domestic sales, leaving local farmers struggling to compete. Orlando Eck, Chairperson of Conception Farmers’ Cooperative explained that onions are not sustainable due to the pricing.

Orlando Eck, Chairperson, Conception Farmers Association: “The price of onion as you can see was $3. We are just starting it and the price is dropping. We need to do profit. As you can see the projection that Mr. Roches is doing, people are losing and big losses. So we don’t want to face that. So if we have a good transition that is like we want to know and the marketing board what is their option for now we have enough yellow onions but we might see that we don’t have purple and the white one to supply the country but like the Minister said before in the news he said that within two weeks people will not have the yellow or white onion he mentioned in that interview carrots but now I am mentioning white onion and purple onion. People will not die but we will have the yellow one. So that we could supply the country and if you understand our point we are out there sunny, rainy, every day we are there in the farm to  produce good quality. As you can see we have good quality of yellow onion so I think that if we do a good transition we will make it.”

For many farmers, this meeting served as a much-needed opportunity to have their voices heard and push for reforms that could secure the future of local onion farming. While they await a formal government response, the sentiment among farmers remains one of cautious optimism as they continue to advocate for change.