The López-Martínez Farm in San Joaquin, Corozal, sells milk and cheese

By Rubén Morales Iglesias: Stop three in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security, and Enterprise tour of the Corozal District on Friday, May 21, took the agricultural staff to the Gladys Magaly López-Martínez farm in San Joaquin.

Mrs. López-Martínez and her family have cattle and chicken and they produce mostly milk products, such as white cheese, two types of cottage cheese, and milk.

“My products are all natural,” Mrs. López-Martínez said. “We sell our product here in San Joaquin and the Corozal District.”

When asked by Minister Jose Abelardo Mai who were her customers, whether Belizean customers or Latin Americans living here:

“We have all types of customers, Hindu, Chinese, locals and foreigners. The ranch is becoming small for us, we’d like to have a bigger ranch,” López-Martínez. “In the future we would like to have a cheese factory. So, we’d like to increase the milking cattle because our products are selling well, and the demand is good.”

“We have added chickens and our plan include getting some tilapia,” she said.

López-Martínez has a pond in the 10-acre farm where she plans to develop the tilapia project.

The very energetic Mrs. López-Martínez asked the Ministry of Agriculture for assistance to improve her farm particularly now coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All districts have their farmers and we need you to help us, to give us a push forward so we can say ‘Here we are more than ever because the reality is we’ve been here.”

“When in the moment of emergency, when in the moment of need, all farmers, all livestock producers, we should have said, here we are and let’s push forward because this is our country, this is our people, this is our community that we must uplift in moments of need.”

Already is receiving guidance from District Agricultural Officer Elsner Campos and the Agriculture Department staff.

Mrs. López-Martinez then proceeded to milk one of her cows for the MAFSE group to see and was joined by Minister Mai who said that he had done that before in his days as a student and when he was an extension officer.

The cow in question produced about 7 liters of milk. Mr. Martínez, Mrs. López-Martínez husband, said that on a normal basis, the cow produces between 7 liters to 10 liters per day and apart from that, the cow feeds its calves.

The visit ended with the agricultural staff tasting the white cheese and Mrs. López-Martínez sharing bottles of freshly-squeezed milk.

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