Belize has a narrow range of traditional export crops - namely sugarcane, citrus and bananas. The Belizean economy is highly dependent on foreign exchange earnings from sugar. The cutbacks in the US preferential quota and the deterioration in the price for sugar on the international market have resulted in sugar's contribution to export earnings declining steadily from 60% in 1978 to only 43% in 1986. Given the need to diversify Belize's agricultural base, a Commercialization of Alternative Crops Project (CAC) was initiated in June, 1986 by the Ministry of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development. The Belize Agri-Business Company (BABCO) is the nonprofit organisation responsible for administering the CAC Project until June, 1990. BABCO's agricultural crop diversification strategy has both export oriented and import substitution components.