Saturday, August 1st, 2015. BMG: Earlier this week a team of agriculture specialists visited Cancun, Mexico, for the second annual meeting of the Multilateral Fruit Fly Commission.
Ministry of Agriculture CEO Jose Alpuche; Emir Cruz, Managing Director of BAHA; and Hernan Zetina, National Medfly Coordinator, witnessed the reneweal 
of signatures of the Fruit Fly Control Cooperative Agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA),
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture, and the Belize Agricultural Health Authority. CEO Alpuche signed for Belize, while Edward Avalos signed for the USDA.
This agreement is signed annually between the parties to govern cooperation in the management of fruit fly pests of interest to protect crops in Belize and the United States.
The cooperative efforts include the control and eradication of fruit fly pests; the management of an exotic fruit fly surveillance program, and technical cooperation with respect to the management of fruit fly pests and related activities in Belize.
Belize will also receive financial assistance from the USDA after it committed to donating US $186,
000 for the year 2016, while G.O.B has set aside US $343,600 in counterpart funding to be used as salaries and operational expenses for the medfly programme.
The USDA contribution will be used specifically for medfly eradication activities and for the procurement of equipment, materials and supplies, coming at an opportune time since medflies have recently been detected in the South of the country.
A press release issued by BAHA thanks both the United States Government and the Government of Belize for their continued support to the medfly programme and for helping to keep Belize medfly free.