How are they missing out ? the tomatoes have no taste, the lettuce will have you doing the quick step, apples, any type of melons have no taste, forget about the beef, they use pesticides here that are banned in first first world countries and they use way to much antibiotics on their beef, so forget about the DR as being a mecca for healthy food.
- Thread starter islandhopping
- Start date
Dominican Republic food imports jump 17% in March to US$220.5 M
Lack of quality control and lack of competitive marketing.
They take the easy way out for their goods, not the most profitable but at the same time more intensive.
We have products that a far beyond top quality in markets like the US or in the EU. The problem is that most of them are lacking when it comes to leadership on home markets. They invest very little to establish their brand locally, while they let others to the task on the international stage.
Take Bon for example. Far from thinking outside of the box, they retain their 'lil island mentality.
A good 99% of Dominican producers are "CONFORMISTAS"...
What we need is to change family/partners and self owned industries into real stand alone corporations. With aggressive CEOs.
I had a good friend that created from the ground up a great shoes making factory back in the early 80's. It was doing rather well, when quality was the ticket for good sales. I asked him if I could take some samples with me to PR and Panama to show some contacts there. After I came back with rather large orders for the same quality shoes, his answer was "Eso es mucho trabajo". He was happy with his income then, and saw little need to expand beyond his immediate control. Some ten years later, his factory was shut down due to the crushing waves of quality shoes coming from Italy and Spain at basement prices.
Same thing with Mentas Cristal...
i totally agree. i find most dominican produce tasteless if not downright nasty. cheese? mmmm, no, i buy mostly imported. juice? packed with sugar, unless i do it myself. maybe if you eat exclusively dominican fare... but then, boiled platanos? boiled yuca? they taste of nothing.
I think the problem with the tomatoes is that they pick them too soon, nothing is vine ripened. Dominicans like hard, unripe tomatoes with green areas - yuck. I do buy roma/plum tomatoes by the can from the roadside stands near us, and make tomato sauce with them that is actually very good. Just can't find a good salad tomato. The melons ARE tasteless, I don't understand that.
Agree about the juice, only Rica has the 'sin azucar' option for their orange. I make some myself too, mostly mango because we're blitzed with them.
As far as boiled anything, it's what you add to them that makes them tasty. I mean boiled pasta is tasteless too until you put a yummy sauce on it. Boiled yuca is good if you drizzle good olive oil over it and pile on sauteed onions [hold the vinegar that the Dominicans love to add!!] If I don't want to bother with the onions & oil I sometimes add a spoon of chicken soup base to the water as it's boiling, makes a big difference and is fast!
The best products do get exported - those tomatoes that AE is looking for? They are certified organic, greenhouse grown up in Constanza - and are flown to Europe. I visited the greenhouse - and the man there said the airfare cost more than the fruit. (yes, yes,, tomatoes are a fruit) - I picture them, the little round red guys, sitting there, in First Class, of course, with their seat belts around them
Little bit of adobo or sazon in boiling water will liven up any boiled veggiee, including yuca, just try it! A little olive oil and salt bring some flavors as well. As for the infamous green tomato, they are picked before ripening so they can last longer. Semi green does give a more flavorful taste in certain dishes.
as for melons, they need to ripen a little more, but are very sweet.
The big one for me is having a good product , for export only! There should be a farmers market with better quality veggies. That cheese and beef issue, come on, send some of these kids into farm country in the u.s. and form some sort of apprentice program , to learn from the pros. There are enough dominicans in pennsylvania that can learn alot from the farming industry there. Or should the DR get some mexican farm workers to show them how its done?
Couldnt believe my gramps and the viejos sayimg that the kids snub there noses at the work involved in farming. It was a big deal for me tios and tias , a must for kids from the 50s and 60s in the DR, to work the land. But mtv and new world cable makes it very un cool to do back breaking work. The younger generation (work force) would rather work out, wash their car or pasola, and go to some menial job, instead of working their families field for a living.
When me and the boys used to visit the campos, we would stop by some mini fincas , asking what they growing, just trying to pick up some items for the week, and driving away with 5 pound bags of whatever specialty is growing, for 10~20 cents a pound. Fortunatly we have an oldschool senora that knows how to put the food together. That really gets the viejos talking!
Its just crazy that the youth is throwing away an industry that they can be very good at. Cattle ranching could be hard back breaking work, but rewarding. The dominicans know how to breed a fat pig, a decent goat, millions of chickens, but the beef sucks? Something very wrong.
as for melons, they need to ripen a little more, but are very sweet.
The big one for me is having a good product , for export only! There should be a farmers market with better quality veggies. That cheese and beef issue, come on, send some of these kids into farm country in the u.s. and form some sort of apprentice program , to learn from the pros. There are enough dominicans in pennsylvania that can learn alot from the farming industry there. Or should the DR get some mexican farm workers to show them how its done?
Couldnt believe my gramps and the viejos sayimg that the kids snub there noses at the work involved in farming. It was a big deal for me tios and tias , a must for kids from the 50s and 60s in the DR, to work the land. But mtv and new world cable makes it very un cool to do back breaking work. The younger generation (work force) would rather work out, wash their car or pasola, and go to some menial job, instead of working their families field for a living.
When me and the boys used to visit the campos, we would stop by some mini fincas , asking what they growing, just trying to pick up some items for the week, and driving away with 5 pound bags of whatever specialty is growing, for 10~20 cents a pound. Fortunatly we have an oldschool senora that knows how to put the food together. That really gets the viejos talking!
Its just crazy that the youth is throwing away an industry that they can be very good at. Cattle ranching could be hard back breaking work, but rewarding. The dominicans know how to breed a fat pig, a decent goat, millions of chickens, but the beef sucks? Something very wrong.
i really hate that sazon - makes everything taste the same. There are great veggies here - in the Capital - amazing -but one has to actually just eat at home since there are very few restaurants which do anything with the veggies- except the eggplant.
sadly - the DR is growing more food on fewer acres -- as posted in the IPS article - which means higher use of fertilizer
work in the fields in Constanza is done without masks -- putting on the fertilizer- so it will be hard to get Dominicans to work in those conditions.
There may be other vast areas of production - where Dominicans are working.. I don't know.
And I don't know what is up with the beef. A French friend of mine says it is because it was not bleed properly --???-- he puts it in the freezer before he cooks it which he says tenderizes it.
sadly - the DR is growing more food on fewer acres -- as posted in the IPS article - which means higher use of fertilizer
work in the fields in Constanza is done without masks -- putting on the fertilizer- so it will be hard to get Dominicans to work in those conditions.
There may be other vast areas of production - where Dominicans are working.. I don't know.
And I don't know what is up with the beef. A French friend of mine says it is because it was not bleed properly --???-- he puts it in the freezer before he cooks it which he says tenderizes it.
There are still massive fields that are cultivated near our house, come out and visit when we get back and I'll give you a tour.
The beef - someone a long time ago posted that the problem is that it's not aged in DR. Makes sense to me!
certainly I have seen plantain and yucca down your way
and rice up in Samana
but I think most of the green veggies are up in mountains?
thanks for the invite - sorry i did not make it this year.
and rice up in Samana
but I think most of the green veggies are up in mountains?
thanks for the invite - sorry i did not make it this year.
Near us there are a LOT of onion, eggplant, okra, tomato, cucumbers, oyama plantations. Also papaya, chinola, avocados, mangos, etc. The big void is garlic, which I'm told comes in from Asia via Haiti. Needs a cooler climate apparently.
the reason why fruits and veggies have no taste is because they pick everything young here. praedial larceny is such a huge problem, nothing remains on trees long enough to ripen properly. either the thieves get them, or the owners try to beat the thieves to it. so, they pick them young and use chemicals to get them to force ripe, and they end up with nice colors, but no taste whatsoever.
it's either or. too young or, like carrots for example, too damn old. you never see here "spring" type produce, like you do in europe: baby carrots, fresh young garlic, baby potatoes, spring onions with tiny onions still attached.
the problem with local beef is that it goes from the cow to the kitchen. people who know anything about beef let it age in the refrigerator, and when a certain number of days have passed, under special conditions, it becomes tender. a lot of the European guys here are using the same old Dominican cows to produce tender steaks.
Exactly. Tender, but still not quite as flavorful since the local beef is quite lean. The problem is both one of a learning process and a lack of proper refrigeration.
Coming from California and hearing how great the fruits and vegetables were here (before actually sampling them) I was quite dismayed at the lack of taste in local produce. Carrots are grown to a tasteless science fiction size, strawberries picked while still green and white, watermelons are good about 25% of the time. And the oranges here, yuck no matter what the type.
I just had some in Florida that reminded me of the vast difference in just oranges. People here are sadly mistaken or must come from the north eastern part of North America.
Both the variety and flavor sadly lacking here in the DR. Once again, no imagination, no control of theft and the sanctification that having less variety is OK because people are used to it.
But hey, the bananas and mangos are good. So are the egg plant.