Trade is the act of buying and selling goods and services. Most of what Belizean consumers buy isn’t manufactured in Belize, and so the country has to import quite a bit from its main trading partners: the United States, China, Mexico and Central America, to meet domestic demand. The problem is that there is a growing gap between what Belize imports (or buys) and what it exports (or sells). In fact, latest information released by the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) indicates that Belize’s import bill reached a record high $956 million for the first half of 2014 – that’s up by 6.2% over the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the revenue which Belize receives from the sale of its domestic exports, such as sugar, citrus, bananas, animal feed and marine products, has been dropping by far more – a whopping 17% for the first half of 2014.
With a drastic decline in petroleum production, crude oil exports have been marginal, but the good news is that sugar production has been on the rebound, with sales increasing by a notable 50% in June, to net Belize $19 million.
Overall, Belize exported $65.6 million worth of goods in June 2014, and this represents an increase of 20% over last June. However, imports were substantially higher.
According to the SIB, “In June 2014, Belize imported goods valuing almost $159 million, representing a 5.7 percent increase over the same month of 2013.”
The country spent more on mineral fuels and lubricants, as well as food and live animals – the purchases of which increased by a combined $7.3 million. Purchases of premium gasoline, milled rice, condensed milk and processed cheese were also higher.
In June, Belize imported $48 million worth of goods from the US, $29.4 million from Central America, $19.7 million from China, and $17 million from Mexico.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the country’s exports went to the UK – a total of $30 million worth of goods, mostly sugar, bananas and marine products.
Belize’s exports to the US, which include citrus concentrate and marine products, totaled $16.4 million in June 2014.
The SIB notes that, “June 2014 was the very first month in over a year that there was an increase in the value of Belize’s domestic exports,” with sugar being the single largest export earner.
Despite the growth in exports for June, when the figures for the first half of the year were summed up, the end result was a 17% drop in exports, from $386 million in January to June 2013 to $320 million in January to June 2014, or a decline of $66 million.
This is in line with the first quarter statistics, which indicated that Belize exported over $139 million worth of goods in the first quarter, 22% less than what was exported for the same period last year. There was a fall-off in exports of crude petroleum, sugar and citrus concentrate, which meant $40 million less in export earnings for the first quarter, January to March 2014.