Minister of Agriculture Luis Ramon Rodriguez says that the Dominican Republic will have to step up its efforts to produce more of the milk that it consumes now that the European Union is eliminating its subsidies on milk production. As a result, imported milk will now be more expensive as there are already reports that many farmers are giving up milk production due to the absence of governmental subsidies.
Minister Luis Ramon Rodriguez said that the Ministry and its Department of Livestock and the National Council for Ruling and Promotion of the Dairy Industry (Conaleche) are working closely together to stimulate an increase in milk production per cow in the country. Rodriguez was speaking during a conference on the Ministry of Agriculture’s Institutional Vision of the Farming sector, plans and projects. He said that milk production in the country is a low seven liters per cow and that the country imports 32,000 tons of milk, of which 70% is from Europe, 15% from New Zealand and 15% from other countries. He warned however that the elimination of the European subsidies would mean the end of low-cost milk imports.
He said that part of the problem has been in the variety of the cows imported for milk production, Holstein and Brown Swiss that consume imported balanced feed and have not adapted well to tropical climates. He said that local cattle ranchers needed to move to cows that feed on grass and free roaming ranches. The Ministry is implementing an insemination program with Gir cows that produce less milk but consume less feed and thus their production cost is lower.
Rodriguez said that the Medina administration has pledged to provide RD$40 billion for the farming sector and that RD$17 to RD$18 billion was already available.
The minister concluded by saying that the government would continue to back small and medium-sized farm producers to reduce their costs and increase production, as reported in Hoy.