MINISTER OF STATE ATTENDS MEETING IN EL SALVADOR

March 07, 2007

Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Mario Castellanos is back in the country after he attended a one day meeting in El Salvador earlier this month. Castellanos met with several Central American counterparts of the Consejo Agropepcuario Centroamericano, C-A-C, to discuss the shortage of corn in the hemisphere. Central America consumes about 10-thousand million pounds of corn annually. Fifty percent of that amount is imported for use in animal feed production. It now costs twenty-five percent more to acquire yellow corn since the United States is using most of its corn supply for the production of ethanol. A Government release says Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras are the countries that have the political will and support to supply the region with corn, in its shortage.The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and its stakeholders are spearheading the national effort to ensure that Belize is self-sufficient and that a plan is put in place to supply countries as Costa Rica and Guatemala which import yellow corn from the U-S.The meeting also focused on the production of other grains, such as beans and rice. 

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