2005News

US increases Dominican sugar quota

The United States has increased the Dominican Republic’s sugar quota by 21% in the preferential US market. According to Listin Diario, sugar exports are now expected to hit US$100 million in 2006. The increase of 43,000 tons brings the total quota to 247,649 tons. The information was released to the press by Faustino Jimenez, executive director of the Dominican Sugar Institute, INAZUCAR. According to Jimenez, the United States had approved a total sugar quota of 1.226 million tons of crude sugar, but this was increased to 1.498 million tons and the Dominican Republic is assigned 16.69% of the total. The increase will be assigned to local producers in the same proportion that they now export. It should be noted, however, that the current quota for the Dominican Republic is far below the 350, 940 tons that the country enjoyed in 1995. At that time, nonetheless, the country was not able to fulfill the quota because of poor management of the state-owned sugar fields. The 2005-2006 sugar harvest is expected to bring in 619 thousand tons. La Romana, one of the most efficient sugar mills in the world, is assigned 51.28% of the export quota for the US market.