Belize’s flag flies at half-mast all this week, on the passing of Dr. Theodore “Ted” Aranda, a giant of our country. Much has been said and written in this newspaper and on other media about his career in the political arena, how he became leader of the UDP, how close he came to being Prime Minister in 1984, how he joined the PUP after becoming disgruntled with the UDP and became a Minister in a PUP government. Outside of party politics, Dr. Aranda was a force for the betterment of the Garinagu and all Belizeans, founded the World Garifuna Organization and, along with Amandala publisher Evan X Hyde and others, presented the Black Summit in Belize in 2003.
Dr. Aranda was a great man with very humble beginnings. A close associate and protégé of his told us he was born in Newtown, a village just south of Dangriga which was destroyed by a hurricane in 1941, and from there he moved to Hopkins, where he was fostered by his maternal grandmother in the family’s thatched abode on the beach in that village. In Hopkins he came under the influence of an uncle, Paul Nunez, who was a teacher. He was bright in school, and the Jesuits whisked him off to St. John’s College, wherefrom he went to Guatemala to further his studies. While there he started a family, from whom he separated after he left to pursue studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US, where he earned a Ph.D. in Education.
Back in Belize, Dr. Aranda started a new family, and began blazing a trail, creating a legacy in politics, culture, health, and education that will continue to positively impact our country for generations. Not least of his contributions to Belize was his dignity, the way he carried and expressed himself. A class act, he was that rarest of rare, a politician who was first and foremost a statesman. By his example he showed Belizeans that we were the equals of any people anywhere.
GoB must investigate the price of eggs
When prayers across the world that Covid-19 would quickly lose its virulence went unanswered, there were fears that people would die in never before seen numbers, until the disease relinquished its hold. To date, the pandemic’s toll on lives has not been nearly as bad as most feared, largely because of the rapid development of vaccines and the application of knowledge gained from past experiences in managing epidemics. It was fairly certain that economies across the globe would take a battering from the pandemic, and those economies that would be hit hardest were ones like ours that had put so many “eggs” in the tourism basket. The impact on the world’s economies has been as bad as predicted.
Our pain has been exacerbated by our dependence on imported goods. As a nation we can be happy that our situation isn’t worse, but for the 50% or more of us who have been and are living below the poverty line, these are the worst of economic times.
Unofficially, since the beginning of the pandemic, the cost of imported products has gone up 20%, 50%, as much as 100% in some cases. The price of fuel on the world market is now so high that the GoB has been forced to cut its tax take from some fuel products, with the excise tax on diesel being reduced by 57%. The GoB has also started making direct payments to bakeries, “subsidizing flour” to keep the price of a 16-ounce loaf from going up. Not many Belizeans can afford cake, but most can still buy bread.
World experts forecast that the cost of goods will be even higher by year’s end. Belizeans know there isn’t much we can do about the cost of products we import, but we have to ask questions when the cost of goods we produce go through the roof. In only three years, from 2020 to 2022, the retail price of an egg has gone from 25 cents to over 40 cents in some shops!
Presently, most locally produced food at the market and on the grocery shelves comes from two main groups: small farmers and the Mennonites. Small farmers produce the bulk of our vegetables and ground food. The Mennonite group produces the bulk of our rice, beans, corn, milk, cheese, chicken, and eggs. Locally produced fruit and fresh meat in the market come from both small and large holdings.
Prices of locally produced vegetables and ground food at the market rise and fall based on availability — the production of the farmers. Fruit prices rise and fall with the seasons, except for bananas, which are produced year round. The price of beef remained fairly close to what it was pre-pandemic, until the recent opening of export markets in Mexico and Guatemala.
The only real competition for locally produced eggs, milk, cheese, and chicken, staples at the markets and grocery stores that are almost the exclusive domain of the Mennonite group, comes from abroad. With the cost of imports high because of the world’s supply chain being disrupted; a war going on in Ukraine, Europe’s breadbasket; and the price of fuel up more than 30%, effectively the group can call for what it wants.
The manager/spokesperson for the Mennonite group explained that the cost of inputs had driven up the cost of production for eggs considerably, putting the wholesale price at 30 cents per egg, and he suggested that the markup at the grocery shops might be too great. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Standards explained that eggs do not fall into the basket of products that are sold at prices set by the GoB. Milk, cheese, and chicken are also not sold at controlled prices.
We are at the mercy of the Mennonite group, and none of us should be stirred to envy or have hard feelings, because this is not that group’s doing; this is of our own making. Our Mennonite group deserves congratulations for their industry and the way they cooperate with each other, and our political leaders need to explain their policies of diminished support to Roots Belizean farmers over the decades.
No blame can be put on any group for making a near monopoly of some essential foods. The blame for that falls entirely on successive governments of Belize. As it stands, the manager/spokesperson didn’t have to explain anything about the price of eggs. We take their word for it that inputs have gone up by so much, hence the need to tack on so much on the price of the wholesale product.
With the world turned on its side and the GoB hesitant to address a monopoly, hesitant to investigate the price of eggs, cheese, milk, and chicken, maybe we need to ask the Mennonite group to cut back on their profits during this very difficult time. It’s really bad that the cheapest animal protein source has just been priced beyond the pockets of the 50% of Belizeans who are surviving on starvation diets.