One man that sounded the alarm on Fruta Bomba months ago was PUP Representative Jose Mai. He warned the House of Representatives that the investor was unhappy because of delays in the Department of the Environment approving the digging of wells. At the time Mai noted that the company had gone down from packing almost 80 thousand boxes of fruit, to packing just 15 thousand.
And now he says the company closing will give rise to all the social issues that accompany unemployment:..
Hon. Jose Mai, Area Rep. OW South
"Today I think they've had enough and they decide to move. You see other countries have a lower cost of production and they are moving there. Why would they stay in a country that has high cost of production, high labor cost, unfit or unfriendly farm policies? When you can go to other countries and get labor for half the price in Belize. You have less disease incidents, you have friendly government who understands agriculture - who understands exportation and trade. Why would you stay in Belize? Why would you stay in a country where they tell you you can't dig a well until I approve it and it takes 30 days to approve a well?"
Our archives show that ten years ago Fruta Bomba had 7 to 800 employees, and now they are down to 250, showing that they have been steadily scaling down operations.
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