San Carlos Carrot Farmers Call for Action Against Contraband Threat

A handful of carrot farmers in San Carlos Village, Orange Walk are up in arms and say acres of their crops are at risk of rotting. The farmers claim that they are unable to find buyers for their produce and are at risk of losing sing incant investments. The issue, according to them, stems from an uptick in the contraband of carrots from Mexico and Guatemala. The farmers are now calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to assist them is tackling the issue that has saturated the market. However, yesterday, Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai stated that the issue is far more complex and explained that his ministry is seeking a long term solution. 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture: “This year there is 90 acres of carrots planted, 50 acres is in the Cayo district and 25 acres in the Orange Walk district San Carlos. It is always an issue of supply and demand. The majority of the harvest now is in January, February I think and March from the information I’ve been sent. There is one or two farmers in San Carlos who are upset. Carrots is a highly perishable vegetable. It spoils in your refrigerator, it has no shelf life. You cannot expect the public to consume all your carrots in one day. The farmers know this very well. But if there is one farmer or one politician who chooses to make carrots to make a political statement he is mistaken. That is primary school politics coming from a very weak political mind. They’ve tried it before, Tracy tried it I think when she was feeling very carrotish two years ago I had to apologize for what I said to her and Shyne Barrow said it too and it has not worked. Carrots is not a matter that you need to play politics with, it takes you nowhere. Our job is to ensure that the farmer can market as much as he can. In the next five years of our term in government, which will begin shortly, and the next five years we are moving our agriculture sector to a more industrialized type of agriculture. We’ve seen that we’ve reached our capacity in fresh production. We start now to start add value aggressively and so we’re reaching out to the ROC Mission, we’re reaching out to other countries to help us design a plant. As a matter of fact I think we have it approved already, a facility where we can process the products because they are perishables and so I don’t think it is a matter that should be taken for political baseball or football. It’s a matter that needs to be addressed.”

The opposition has condemned the government for what it says is a lack of empathy for the farmers.