Belmopan. February 17, 2021. 4:50 p.m.
On Saturday, February 13, 2021, Hon. Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise, and senior staff of the Ministry attended a meeting with vegetable importers, distributors, and potato producers of the Orange Walk District. The meeting was held at the SIRDI conference room in Buena Vista, Corozal.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss wholesale distribution, issuance of permits, and prices of locally grown potatoes. The following recommendations were agreed on:
- Issuance of permits will be monitored before the harvesting of local production.
- Producers or producers’ groups will now need to provide buyers/importers who purchase from them a receipt that will be stamped and signed by the producers.
- When applying for the importation of vegetables, importers will now need to show receipts from producers, showing that they had purchased local produce.
- Any importer caught with contraband products will be disqualified from any further importation.
- The duration of the import license for vegetable importation will now be seven days, instead of 11 days.
- Farmers and importers were also informed that they cannot tamper with the production of potato by mixing local products with the imported ones.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise thanks everyone present at the meeting and continues to chart the way forward for collaboration between producers and importers.
Ends
