Project Name：Food Processing Project (Belize)

Project status：Completed projects

Cooperating Country：Central America, Belize

Project Description：

This project will address the problem of surplus agricultural production by channeling surplus produce into the food processing industry, and increase employment opportunities by making use of the women’s labor force in rural areas.Overall, this project will:
1. Vocational training sub-project: Organize food processing courses at a local university and complete a course manual.
2. Women’s food processing sub-project: Organize a community-based, women’s food processing group.
3. Soy sauce production pilot sub-project: Cooperate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture to organize a women’s soy sauce processing team in Orange Walk, providing training on fermented food and food hygiene and safety.
4.Dried fruit commercialization sub-project: Mass produce dried fruit, provide training on food hygiene and safety, and apply for HACCP (food safety) accreditation.Organize two large-scale demonstrations such as field days or exhibitions: participate in exhibitions or activities organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture.

Project No：TCD-2010-B07-003

Implementation Start Date：2010-01-01

Implementation End Date：2013-12-31

Project Objectives：

1.Social welfare sub-project: Extend the school lunch program and provide juices as requested by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture; transfer production techniques to private sector stakeholders.
2.Cooperate with the Institute for Technical and Vocational Education and Training to provide training to seed teachers and vocational high school students; increase employment opportunities among vocational high school students.
3.Assist women in local communities to organize food processing associations or teams; provide training on food processing; develop and commercialize products that draw on local characteristics.
4.Increase incomes among 100 households by establishing the first specialized area in Central America dedicated to producing soy sauce, thereby establishing a fermentation processing industry in Belize.
5.Working in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture, transfer processing techniques to the private sector through the operations of the school lunch sub-project and the dried fruit sub-project, thereby increasing foreign exchange earnings and raising employment opportunities.
6.Organize two large-scale demonstrations to promote the outcomes of project implementation.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in Belize / Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture (MNRA) (Belize) / University of Belize / Belize Agriculture Health Authority (BAHA) / Institute for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ITVET) (Belize)

Project Performance：

1.Provided 40,000 lunch beverage bottles and 5,480 snacks to 13,000 schoolchildren.
2.Trained 18 seeds teachers and 665 students and completed 24 food processing training courses.
3.Provided guidance to the Counseling Processing Association of Women on 33 occasions, training 622 people as part of 45 food processing training courses.
4.Provided guidance to women’s groups over 47 sessions, training 907 people in the development of homemade sauce production technology and systems, and producing 17,330 liters of soy sauce.
5.Provided guidance to 65 people and produced 2,507 kg of dried fruit.
6.Handled 8 food processing seminars.

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in Belize