Local News

A forum with farmers and Restaurant Owners is taking place at the Placencia Peninsula today.  District Agriculture Coordinator for the Stann Creek District, Belarmino Esquivuel told us all about today’s important meet

BELARMINO ESQUIVUEL, District Agriculture Coordinator

“Basically, what we are conducting today is we’re having farmers visit the different restaurants here in Placencia.  We’re allowing them to understand why the restaurants pay for such quality of agricultural products and they can understand the prices, and make linkages between the buyer and the producer.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“What is it you hope to achieve out of this?”

BELARMINO ESQUIVUEL, District Agriculture Coordinator

“Well what we want to achieve with this is that farmers will understand why the restaurant – the owners of the restaurant want to pay for certain quality, at what price, why it is important to produce the good quality products- agricultural products, is it from the man and the linkages, most important is the linkages, that we are facilitating the linkages within the farmers and the buyers if agricultural products right here at the Placencia Peninsula.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“So who is undertaking this project?  Is this a collaborative effort or is it only the agricultural unit?”

BELARMINO ESQUIVUEL, District Agriculture Coordinator

 “We’re doing it along with the farmers; we are doing it with the Ministry of Agriculture undertaking this initiative along with Lyra who is also participating in this whole initiative.  After 2:00 PM we will be having a display of agriculture products where everybody will be visiting and they will be able to interact with the farmers and look particularly at the different display that we will have our cultural produce at the Community Center in Placencia.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

“And who are these farmers?  Where do they come from?”

BELARMINO ESQUIVUEL, District Agriculture Coordinator

 “The farmers come from Red Bank; the farmers come from the south side of Stann Creek District.  The initiative here is to look at the market what is on demand and from there on the connections that are being established and the restaurants are also getting the names of the farmers, what they are producing, what they have in stick, what is the quantities, the consistency and quality.”

NATALIE NOVELO, Reporter

 “So overall you’re saying that the interaction between the farmers and the business owners, the restaurant owners have been a good one so far?”

BELARMINO ESQUIVUEL, District Agriculture Coordinator

 “It has been a very good one.  Actually and it also a learning experience because we are also being requested that the restaurants are requesting some exotic fruits, Jack fruits for example, the Jippi Jappa which is very good that they use for salad, the green leaves, the spinach, the callaloo and very different commodities that farmers would have never thought would have been sold is being requested by the restaurants here in Placencia.”

 The public in general but especially restaurant owners and chefs are invited to come out between one and two thirty pm at the Placencia Community center to witness the display by the farmers.