apr-2017c

32 33 COUNTRY FOODS COUNTRY FOODS THE NUMBER ONE EGG PROVIDER I n 1958, a group of Mennonites migrated from Mexico to the jun- gles of British Honduras, now the country of Belize. They cleared the land with axes and machetes, determined to make a living in the new settlement of Spanish Lookout. Chicken and cattle were imported with the goal of raising them, both for consumption on the settlement, and to sell to the natives for an income to pay for the es- tate and the bare necessities of life. Initially, the settlers established the Farmers Trading Center in 1962, but when the market for its table eggs kept growing, the company directors formed a separate entity, and, in 1997, Country Foods was born. Today, Country Foods, with a staff of 27, sells eggs, beans, corn meal, corn, and rice through- out the country on a weekly basis from its distribution center in Spanish Lookout. Coun- try Foods produces over 50 percent of Belize’s eggs – approximately 127,300 cases per year (360 eggs per case) – from 85 different farmers. Its customers include brick and mortar shops, stores, supermarkets, shopping centers, resorts, hotels, restaurants, and other food vendors. In 2011, the company bought an egg grading ma- chine, which allowed it to organize and stamp all eggs of the same size and present them in trays and cases: small, medium, large, extra