With the recent drought and now the excessive rains experienced over the past few days, cabbage fields in the community of Valley of Peace were almost destroyed. This has further affected cabbage production, which according to the bi-weekly Food Stock Availability report, has been very low for the past five weeks and has not been meeting the market demand.
On average, Belize consumes 80,000 pounds of cabbage weekly.
A quick survey carried out by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on June 2nd indicated that there is an estimated 12,000 pounds of cabbage to supply the national demand. This should be ready for harvest around June 18th, leaving a gap of one week without cabbage. Furthermore, due to the limited amount of local cabbage available, the Ministry made the decision to import 25,000 pounds through the Belize Marketing and Development Corporation.
The Ministry will continue to closely monitor the supply and demand of cabbage under the prevailing unfavourable weather conditions.
The last license for imported cabbage was issued on September 2019 for 56,000 pounds.
