Since Friday we've been reporting on the situation with the rice industry. Importer Jack Charles says he can bring in rice from Guyana, which will retail for as little as 69 cents per pound – which is 50 cents cheaper than the one dollar and twenty cents per pound or more that you're currently paying at the store.

But, government doesn't want to give him a permit to import that rice because it will likely destroy the local rice industry. Charles says that those local rice producers need stiff shot of competition, basically because they are price gouging – and you're paying for it.

Charles has got six containers with half a million pounds on standby and he's just waiting for government's go ahead to bring it in. But, for government it's not quite that simple; the matter was discussed at Cabinet yesterday and the Prime Minister agreed that local producers have to do better:…

Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister

"We believe that the situation can be managed in such a way as to bring the price of rice, locally produced rice down for the consumer in such a manner as would make it unnecessary for them to want to consume instead the imported rice. But it's a work in progress, the situation is still flowing."

Jules Vasquez

"Would you then agree that the producers have been charging an unfair markup for local rice because they have a monopoly on the market and also because there's no price control enforced?"

Hon. Dean Barrow

"Admittedly the price control or the prices set by the price control regime have not been honoured, have been violated. The question of who really is responsible is a fairly complicated one, suffice it to say that this have galvanised both the producers who fear the possibility of begin wiped out by cheap or cheaper imported rice from Guyana. And the ministry to come with a solution that optimally should preserve the local rice industry."

"We have to work with those producers to ensure that the consumer is not being as short changed as it is now clear, the consumer has been - so that in seeking to prevent the importation of rice, we don't have to make a choice between the interest of the consumer and the interest of the producer."

Jules Vasquez

"However, should you see to the enrichment or the sustaining of unsustainable rice producers at the detriment to the consumers who can't pay 70 cents a pound, so said Mr. Jack"

Hon. Dean Barrow

"That's precisely the point. I'm not sure of Mr. Charles' figures but undoubtedly you can import the rice at it appears now more cheaply."

"Put it like this I don't think most consumer would say - listen, I don't care if the rice industry and all that depends on that in this country is whipped out as long as I can get cheaper rice prices. I believe that if we can ensure cheaper rice prices for the consumer in Belize – but not as cheap as those prices would be if you simply imported. And you explained that in terms of the larger picture you're going to be better off, perhaps not as better off as you. Could be we just open the flood gates. We're going to be better off and as well we're going to help to save an industry. Your people would understand it so it really is a matter of working this thing out so that consumers get a well deserved break, see a well deserved reduction in the retail price they pay. But certainly not by way of simply allowing unrestricted importation of cheaper rice."

Government issued a release today saying that all relevant ministries are conducting an in-depth review of the rice industry, quote, "with an aim to ensuring the best action for Belize as it relates to the production and supply of rice to the Belizean public."

Government says it will first consider a number of factors including

The various factors affecting the price and market channels of domestically produced rice, a review of the price control mechanisms, the importance of food security and Belize's obligations as a member of CARICOM – where barriers to free trade within CSME cannot be imposed.

And so where do you fit into all this, as the consumer? In its last paragraph, the release says quote, "any action taken in respect to the rice industry in Belize will consider the need to reduce the cost of living as a high priority."

We note that until importer Jack Charles started pressing the issue, what is now called a "high priority" was of no priority at all – and everyone in officialdom seemed content leaving the uncontrolled high prices just as they were.

In fact, last year when the marketing board imported 3.1 million pounds of processed white rice from Guyana – for 52 cents per pound and then re-sold by the same producers for 94 cents wholesale under their own brand labels, no one said anything. That rice was still retailed for one dollars twenty cents a pound with the wholesalers and retailers making all the profit – while the consumers got no benefit.