Belize’s Citrus Industry is Growing says Citrus Growers Association

Belize’s Citrus Industry is growing – that is the message that the Citrus Growers Association is sending out this evening.  The message came via a 2-page release in which the association expressed concerns over the insinuation in certain media houses that the country’s industry was collapsing.  On the contrary, the release notes that the industry is strong and is progressive, and that it continues to deliver a world class product that has access to markets beyond our regions.  Additionally, the release notes, quote, “Belize’s Citrus Industry has with sturdy resilience served our country for more than 100 years. In so doing, it has contributed immensely to the national GDP, nutrition and wellness, foreign exchange earnings, the national social security fund, and the creation of thousands of jobs that continue the transformation of urban and rural communities where Belizeans of all walks of life raise families.”  The release goes on to inform its stakeholders and investors that the company is in no way near a collapse.  The CGA noted, quote, “we take this opportunity to provide information to fellow stakeholders and the public at large in order to dispel misinformation that we view as harmful to our industry and Belize’s national development agenda.”  End of quote.  As it relates to the performance of the CGA, the group noted that at its peak in 2008 the industry produced approximately 8 million boxes of citrus fruit from approximately 65,000 acres of groves with forecasts for up to 13 million boxes by 2013. The effects of the HLB Disease, climate change, together with adverse weather conditions subsequently caused a decline of production to 3.2 million boxes prior to 2020. Notwithstanding these adverse challenges, the citrus industry made valiant efforts to invest in a program of replanting 1.3 million new trees over the past five years that will impact additional annual production by approximately 3 million boxes over the next three years.  As a result of the Covid pandemic our borders were closed, and the industry experienced a sudden collapse of migrant labor employed for harvesting. Citrus farmers consequently and immediately lost revenue.  Losses amounted to some 4.5 million boxes translating to $60 million between 2020 and 2022, not including those huge losses suffered by our processor, CPBL. The labor shortage persisted up to February of this year when government implemented a remedy for migrant work permits. However, by then most of this year’s crop was already lost.  Fast forward to today, and there are approximately 20,000 acres of citrus groves with a capacity to produce 3 million boxes within the next two years provided that there are proper inputs, namely fertilizer and spray cycles coupled with attentive grove maintenance. The company noted that all this detail couple with help from the government they are guaranteeing the future of the industry for another 100 years and beyond.