Belmopan- The Ministry of Agriculture has recently convened a meeting at the Agriculture Show Grounds Conference Room in Belmopan to verify potato production figures and estimated harvest dates with producers.
Producers representing small, medium and large farms from production areas countrywide attended the meeting.
The discussion opened with a presentation and verification of the amount of potato in production by districts. The estimated production for this year is 3.7 million pounds, with harvest dates starting in the first week of February 2018. Based on these estimated production figures, import licenses for potato have been closed by the Ministry of Agriculture. This policy will stand until local production has ended.
The meeting concluded with producers agreeing on a grading payment system based on potato size. Also an agreement was made which enables both producers and wholesalers directly to the market.
The Ministry of Agriculture will continue to monitor the production of potato and continue the dialogue with producers until production has ended.