During a visit to the country’s eastern provinces over the weekend of 12 and 13 January, President Danilo Medina ordered the Gina Dike in Miches, which irrigates 40,000 tareas of ricelands, to be repaired. He also announced official credits for cacao growers in Hato Mayor and for the Esperanza Unida Women’s Association in Vicentillo, in El Seibo. The financing is aimed at increasing the cacao producers’ and the women entrepreneurs’ chocolate production, and the preserves, liquors and wine derived from cacao. In Vicentillo, Medina talked with the women who produce chocolate and other cacao bean derivatives, and watched the preparation process. Some of their products are for export to Russia.
The President told the Esperanza Unida Women’s Association members that he would approve a RD$12 million loan for diversifying cacao products and for a new oven with capacity for toasting some 50 kilograms of product to replace the one that can barely handle 2.5 kilograms of beans. In Hato Mayor, the President listened to local cacao producers, and told them that the government will help them repair their plantations with official credits at low interest rates. In Miches, he spoke with the rice producers who belong to several farmers’ associations and met with Cirilo Thomas, the president of the Rice Producers Federation.