Participatory Guarantee Systems are locally focused quality assurance systems. They certify producers based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange (IFOAM, 2008).
Belize is now part of this group of initiatives. Belize is a Caribbean country with 22,966 km2 and a population of 2 millions. With an important agricultural sector, Belize’s significant production is focused on banana and sugarcane representing 40% of the GNP. Organic production in Belize is reported in 1,810 hectares (2008) basically organic cacao and cardamom.
Belize Organic Alliance is a group of organic growers and consumers, starting a PGS process in the district of Cayo. With the Ministry of Agriculture of Belize and IICA’s (Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) technical support, BOA is being trained on organizational aspects as well as on organic certification, inspection and practices. BOA growers have to comply organic standards based on international organic standards and the organization is structured to comply with IROCB to be able to make an easy transition for third party certification for international markets. This means that BOA’s efforts are focused on training competent technical staff and stakeholders, advisory to growers is not done during the inspections, non announced inspections are carried out, while major improvements are being implemented for documentation and data registration. Reports are open and available to stakeholders as transparency is one of the core values of the PGS process.
Belize belongs to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and applies standards developed by the Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ). Recently, CROSQ has developed the CARICOM regional code of practice for organically produced foods.
If you want to know more about the Belize PGS, visit: http://ruta.org/redi-ao/images/stories/BOA_-_Organic_Certification_News.pdf