The DR has to provide the US with sugar before it does anyone else or itself until the quota is met. There have been years when the local Dominican market was forced to import part of its sugar from other countries such as Brazil to meet local demand. Even though the DR has a great surplus of sugar production relatieve to its domestic demand, everything that has been produced in those years are to fulfill the quota. This is akin to importing sand to the Sahara desert.
The quota has another component and is that the USA agrees to buy it at a higher price than international market prices, increasing the profitability of Dominican sugar production. American consumers pay the highest prices for sugar in the world (its cost is part of the reason why certain US sectors, such as the soda producers, now use corn syrup instead of actual sugar).
It has been said before, almost all the sugar cane plantations in the DR exist to satisfy the Americans. If it exist mostly to satisfy the Dominicans, actual area devoted to sugar cane growth in the DR would probably be around 5% of the current land devoted to that stuff. Practically all the sugar plantations in the east are there because of and for the Americans.
It's ironic that some American tourists in Punta Cana go on guided tours of the countryside which includes going to sugar plantations and bateys that are property of the Central Romana. Little do they know that as a people they are the reason for all of that existance. Without the Americans there is hardly any sugar in the DR (and by consequence any Haitian bateyes).
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