President Danilo Medina visited San Juan de la Maguana on Friday 22 February and promised farmers RD$12.7 billion in financing over a 10-year period, as reported in Diario Libre. The Inter-American Development Bank will be providing the funds. He said the funds would be used to replace traditional rice, beans, corn and onion plantations with vegetables, tropical fruits and other products that reap higher prices on the market. The funding can be used for installation of greenhouse production. It also includes funding the installation of 10 product conservation centers. Danilo Medina is originally from San Juan.
“I didn’t want it to be 27 of February, when I have to give the state of the nation address for the past six months, without presenting this project to San Juan,” he said at a meeting with farmers at the San Juan city hall. He said that it was sad that the province is the eighth poorest in the country, despite being the largest agricultural producer. He announced that construction of the first 500,000 meters of greenhouse space in San Juan would begin during the period before the arrival of IDB funds, with an injection of RD$960 million from central government.
Minister of Agriculture Luis Ramon Rodriguez also attended the event, saying that J. Huete SL would be building the greenhouses. He said the company would purchase the products for export and that works would begin in two months and the first would be operational in six months time.
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