Green Valley Oil opened its processing plant in Spanish Lookout today, where it will turn locally grown soybeans into cooking oil. The facility gives Belizean farmers a new buyer and cuts the country’s reliance on imported oil.
The plant will process locally grown soybeans into cooking oil, which would add value to an agricultural product that might otherwise be sold in raw form.
With cooking oil being produced in Belize, Minister Rodwell Ferguson announced he would ask the Cabinet to increase tariffs on imported oils.
“I want to promise you guys that as soon as you can satisfy the entire Belize market, then myself and my advisor and the minister of agriculture and the chief agriculture, we are going to ask cabinet to increase the tariff on imported oils,” Ferguson said. “So if you want to consume imported oils, then the price will be higher than our locally produced stuff.”
The proposed tariff increase is conditional, meaning only when local production can satisfy the country’s full demand.
The minister also outlined a broader plan to match Belize’s agricultural output with demand at home and across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
“If we are one single market and economy, then we must behave like one single market and economy,” he said. Ferguson added that he had asked the Chief Agriculture Officer to compile a list of products that Belize currently produces, while the CARICOM Secretariat was asked to identify the region’s food requirements. The comparison is intended to show where Belize could increase production and develop export markets.
Ferguson said the Government is also working to attract investment in food processing and expand trade routes to CARICOM, Central America and South America.
