Geoffrey de Sibert - The Case for Specialty Crops in Belize
The Case for Specialty Crops in Belize
By Geoffrey de Sibert
Specialty
Crops provide a potentially significant opportunity in Belize. There is
a fairly broad repertoire of vegetables grown in Belize, although only
on a scale sufficient to provide a modest amount of supply for domestic
demand. Currently, only permanent fruit crops such as citrus, bananas,
papayas and mangoes are grown on an export scale. Yet Belize possesses
the soil conditions, climate conditions and growing seasons that
indicate that it should be able to supply a broad selection of
vegetables to the North American market during the key December to March
window when domestic US production is significantly curtailed due to
weather. Belize also possesses the right conditions to grow certain
other non-agronomic crops ranging from peanuts and chia to sea-island
cotton.
The Specialty Crops opportunity consists of an initial
effort to evaluate a series of vegetables (with multiple varieties for
each species) on a scale large enough to determine whether they can meet
required quality and production cost benchmarks to be suitable
candidates for the export market. Typically, the value per acre of
Specialty Crops can be up to five to ten times higher than the value of
agronomic crops, although production costs are correspondingly higher as
is the risk of loss. And while relative farming margins might be
comparable to the current (historically very high) margins seen in
agronomic farming, absolute farming margins per acre of land are
commensurately higher.
Storage & Transport
There
is no infrastructure for Specialty Crops operations in Belize today.
Accordingly, greenfield construction of cooling, packing and storage
facilities would be needed. The key transport methods for Specialty
Crops exports, namely refrigerated trucks and containers, are currently
available in Belize at reasonable costs. High value added crops that
would require refrigerated air transport would benefit from the
extensive air services to Houston, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte and
Newark. Moreover, given the limited air cargo currently being shipped
from Belize, I believe that favorable, long-term contracts could be
secured.
Marketing & Sales
The
primary market for Specialty Crops produced in Belize is the export
market, with limited potential demand from Belize’s hospitality
industry, the latter currently supplied for the most part from imports.
Belize’s indigenous consumption of vegetables suited for the export
market is limited for both cultural and economic reasons (e.g. Belizeans
have more of a traditional “rice and beans” diet). The major export
markets for specialty crops would be the US and Caribbean Community
(CARICOM). There is no established Specialty Crops brokerage or
distribution network within Belize, either for the domestic or the
export market.
US demand would be seasonal, with most activity
expected to focus on the December to March delivery window when US
production is limited. CARICOM demand is expected to be year round,
driven in part by the extensive hospitality industry present in many
CARICOM countries, as well as by certain more affluent socio-economic
segments in the larger and more prosperous CARICOM countries. Exports
from Belize would benefit from the Common External Tariff (CET) which is
currently fixed at 40% for agricultural products, and the requirement
for CARICOM importers to post their requirements with the CARICOM
General Secretariat.
***
Geoffrey de Sibert is an
international business executive with a thirty year career in finance,
technology, and real estate business development in the US and Europe.
Since 2010 he has focused his activities on the application of
international business development to agri-businesses in emerging
economies. He is currently is Joint Executive Manager of Belize
Agricultural Enterprises, an investment and development firm based on
Soledad, California.
Labels: Agriculture, belize, Caribbean Community, Central America, Common External Tariff, geoffrey de sibert
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