Cattle Exports to Decrease in 2023; Agriculture C.E.O. Explains Why

In 2022, Belize exported approximately thirty-five thousand heads of cattle. It’s the largest figure to date. Today we asked C.E.O. Servulo Baeza whether this year will see a similar output. Aside from removing tariffs to Mexico, C.E.O. Baeza says that the high figures were due to the surplus of cattle in pastures since exports were restricted for the previous two years due to the pandemic. He predicts that between twenty-five to twenty-six thousand heads of cattle will be exported in 2023.

Servulo Baeza, C.E.O., Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security & Enterprise

Servulo Baeza

“We certainly won’t be reaching the numbers that we had back in 2020 because at that time we exported about thirty-five thousand heads of cattle but it was because the markets were closed, we could not export and so the farmers had an excess, you could say so we had that surplus. So when we got in and we opened up back the markets that surplus went out and we had over thirty-five thousand heads being exported. I think this year, we will have over twenty thousand. I would want to think between twenty-five twenty-six thousand heads still exported this year. We’ve had quite a few number of things though that have affected that, in terms of our export; not bad things, but good things.  The weather has been more amenable last year – it was raining more – so farmers did not have that distress that their pastures were depleting and they had to hurry sell. Secondly, the price has gone up. So the more you hold your cattle and fatten it, the more money you’ll make. So all of these things are slowing down some of the trade in terms of cattle, but we still believe that our farmers will have a pretty good year this year.”