Belize: citrus growers prepare for Saturday showdown

In a global economic environment that appears to be permanently rigged against producers of commodities like sugar and bananas, Belize's citrus industry stands out as a model of potential prosperity. With prices climbing and world demand forecast to remain strong, long suffering orange and grapefruit growers are just now beginning to reap some well deserved rewards. But amidst all the optimism, the industry is in turmoil as farmers large and small remain at odds over the future of Belize's most important agricultural export. News Five's Janelle Chanona reports.

Janelle Chanona

The continuing chaos in the citrus industry is expected to climax on Saturday when the committee of five presents its findings regarding the proposed investment in the Citrus Company of Belize by Eastern Caribbean interests. That presentation will be made to the Citrus Growers Association at a special general meeting. To get a better perspective on the issue, this week the committee invited Dr. Thomas Spreen, Professor and Chair of the Food and Resource Economics Department from the University of Florida to share his projections on the global citrus situation. Accepted as one of the world’s experts on the economics of citrus, Spreen believes that for the next five to ten years, prices should be the highest in two decades.

Dr. Thomas Spreen, Professor/Chair, Food and Resource Economics Dept. U.F.

“Citrus is a crop where even if we went out today and planted trees, it would be at least three years before we got any fruit off those trees. And a good five or six years before significant amount of fruit came, so I’m arguing that at least for the next five or six years we are going to be in a very good price environment.”

Brazil and Florida produce eighty percent of the world’s supply of orange juice. But the effects of disease, hurricanes and urbanization in the United States and Brazil means that countries like Belize will see increased market share and profits. Enter the investment agreement between Citrus Products of Belize Limited and Banks Holdings. Spreen says it may not exactly be a match made in heaven.

Dr. Thomas Spreen

“It may feel good to say that there’s a Belize brand being marketed in Costa Rica or Trinidad but it may not make a lot of business sense to do that. It may make a lot of sense to sell your juice to a world brand like Minute Maid or Tropicana, let them do all the marketing and promoting that product and be content to being a supplier to those brands. You know you are not playing with the little boys here when you get into the marketing of orange juice. So my argument would be, you are in a very strong pricing environment anyway, you are going to make good money both in the grove and at the plant. That might make more sense at least for the foreseeable future. I would never want to argue that you’d never want to sell an asset but you’d want to make sure if you are going to sell an asset or a share of that asset, that you get a very favourable price for that asset in the pricing environment that we are in today.”

But local officials have maintained that in addition to getting brand recognition, Belize needs the multi-million dollar Caribbean investment to make a dent in the company’s more than eighty million dollar debt.

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