For the past 5 weeks we have been following the case of importer Jack Charles and his Guyanese Rice that customs now wants to destroy - basically so that they can protect local rice producers. Today we look at quite the opposite scenario. In the north Carrot producers are crying out because their carrots are being under-sold by carrots imported from Mexico. Now, there's no protection for them - and some 10 acres of carrots worth $20 thousand dollars is rotting in the field. Today the media was invited to a press brief on the farms of San Carlos in Orange Walk where farmer Max Hernandez explained our colleagues at CTV3 the plight of the San Carlos Carrot farmers. Here is what Hernandez told them.
Max Hernandez, San Carlos Community
"The problem here in San Carlos is that we started the cultivation of carrots some years ago and the problem now is that there is no market. We've given a report to the Ministry of Agriculture saying that we start the harvest on the 15th December each year. But this year since the 
start of the season, we haven't sold a thing. Now up to 70% of the crop has gone bad due to the fact that they are importing carrots and they are giving license to import carrots. This is affecting us."
Now Mexican imported carrots are not that much cheaper than the local carrots, in fact we understand the prices are almost the same - while, the imported carrots are more attractive. However, the market is so saturated with imported carrots that no one wants to buy from the local producers of San Carlos. We understand that the farmers were told that the importation of carrots would stop by the 15th of December, however as far as they are concerned one person is still licensed to import Mexican carrots. The story was late coming in, and we'll have more on this tomorrow.
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