Photo: (l-r) Jose Trejo, Director of the Belize Bureau of Standards; and Dr. Osmond Martinez, CEO of the Ministry of Economic Development
The Ministry of Economic Development and the Belize Bureau of Standards signed an MOU to improve the standards of quality of local commodities, starting with honey.
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 17, 2022
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) and the Belize Bureau of Standards (BBS) on Tuesday, November 15, through the Resilient Rural Belize Programme to raise the standards of quality of eight commodities, starting with honey.
The MOU lays out the scope of work, and the responsibilities of the parties that will work together to improve the quality of locally produced honey, which will be a pilot project that will lay the groundwork for the improvement of the other commodities The data compiled will be used as a point of reference to assess the honey value chain, from production to consumers.
Signing the memorandum was CEO Dr. Osmond Martinez on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development and Jose Trejo, Director of the Belize Bureau of Standards.
“For us, the importance of this is that we are trying to embed standards at the national level, and this is a grand opportunity for us to show how standards, [and] quality systems are important in the value chain so that the production of goods from start to finish ensures that quality systems are part and parcel of production,” said Trejo.
CEO Martinez commented, “I [do not doubt] that this project will be a success. I can see the commitment and the appetite from the Belize Bureau of Standards to want to be a part of great things in Belize. As small as this initiative may be, it is one that in my eyes is [huge], and I will give you two reasons why: one, because we are working with [practically underprivileged farmers] who were neglected, who were abandoned for many years, and that will [allow us] to increase the human capital and producers that know how to produce on a population that is hard working and on a population that has an appetite to learn and to improve their living of standards.”