Alta Vista is a small rural village in the Stann Creek District of Belize, situated along the Hummingbird Highway in the North Stann Creek Valley. It marks the start of the “upper valley” area and lies approximately 23 km west of Dangriga and 65 km southeast of Belmopan City. The prominent ethnicity is Mestizo. It is part of the Stann Creek West electoral constituency.[1]
The broader North Stann Creek Valley (including Alta Vista) was a major banana-producing area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Banana cultivation collapsed by the late 1930s due to Panama disease and Cercospora attacks. Citrus production replaced bananas in the 1960s and became the economic backbone of the village.
The Alta Vista Community Centre was inaugurated by Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Defence, Youth and Sports and Area Representative for Stann Creek West on December 16, 2007.[2]
The area of the present village was once part of a 1,000-acre estate owned by Englishman John McArthur.[3]
The economy has long been centred on large-scale citrus production and processing. In 1962/1963, the Canadian company Salada Foods constructed a citrus processing plant (Belize Food Products Ltd.) in Alta Vista. Ownership later passed to Kellogg’s (1969), Nestlé (1979), Belizean owners BHI (1990), and finally the Citrus Growers Association in 2002, which merged operations with the Pomona plant to form Citrus Products of Belize Ltd. (CPBL).
The Alta Vista facility remains one of the two main CPBL processing sites and continues to handle oranges and grapefruit. Local agriculture (citrus orchards) and related employment dominate; no other major industries are recorded.[4]
“Alta Vista” is Spanish for “High View.” Local history states it refers to the village’s position at the beginning of the upper North Stann Creek Valley. From around 1962 it was colloquially called “Salada” after the Canadian Salada Foods company that established the citrus plant.
The nearest airstrip used to be the Melinda Airstrip in Hope Creek. After that airstrip was abandoned the nearest airport is in Dangriga.
The historic Stann Creek Railway once passed through the village. This section of rail from Macaroni Hill to Valley Community was opened on March 4, 1910. The railway shut down in 1938 and was replaced by the Stann Creek Valley Road.[5]
Alta Vista lies directly on the Hummingbird Highway (also called Stann Creek Valley Road). The section from Dangriga to Alta Vista was reconstructed as a two-lane bitumen highway in 1996 by Cisco Construction Ltd.[6]
As of 2026, Alta Vista has no schools. Children are picked up every morning by bus and transported to the schools in Pomona. While those seeking higher education go to school in Dangriga.
Alta Vista has no clinics or hospitals.