Cemento Rocafuerto, a subsidiary of Guatemala-based Cemento Progreso, has opened Belize’s first cement plant at Mile 34 of the George Price Highway, near the capital Belmopan, in the presence of the country’s Prime Minister, John Briceño. The 10ha plant represents an investment of US$8m and provides employment to 28 Belizeans. The plant uses European technology that meets modern environmental and quality standards.

Company CEO, Jose Raul Gonzalez, emphasised, “We are proudly now producing cement made in Belize by Belizean hands. For us, it was very important to consolidate the persons of Progresso Guatemala and for Belize to have strategic source of a product that mean development, that mean progress, and that is very important for the infrastructure of this country.”

The Belize market had been previously supplied by Cemento Progreso as it exported bagged cement to the Central American country as well as other cement producers in Mexico and Central America.