Minister of Agriculture Advocates for National Slaughterhouse

One solution the Ministry of Agriculture is considering to tackle the rise in screwworm cases is setting up a slaughterhouse in Belize. Minister Mai believes that exporting live animals isn’t the best approach. Instead, he thinks Belize could benefit much more from exporting premium cuts of meat.

 

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“We have to look at what are the options on our table. As I explained today, this could be an opportunity. We can convert this challenge into an opportunity. Exporting cattle is not the best thing to do. Exporting a raw product is not the best thing to do. We export cacao beans and we import chocolate. We export corn and import corn chips. We export raw sugar and import Tate and Lyle refined sugar. That is nonsense. We export beef and some people in Belize wants to import cuts from American sources. So this challenge can be converted into an opportunity. It is time for us to look seriously at a slaughtering facility, certified that we can export to these other slaughtering facilities, our cuts, maybe whole cuts, shoulders, the quarters, we can begin with that. The argument is we don’t have enough volume to sustain it. Well, lets partner with the same company. Carne has a slaughtering facility in Nicaragua. As a matter of fact, we have a meeting today at one thirty, it is almost one-thirty now, with a company that wants to speak with us about that.”