Casabe is the Caribbean bread made from cassava (yuca) that helped the Spaniards conquer the rest of the Americas in the 16th Century. It is mold resistant, unlike wheat. Casabe is produced mainly in the northwestern town of Moncion, near the areas where the tuber is cultivated.
During a visit to Moncion yesterday, Sunday 7 April, President Danilo Medina promised that the administration would come to the aid of casabe producers and cassava farmers in the province of Santiago Rodriguez to help them modernize and boost their production, and increase exports to the United States and Europe.
President Medina announced that a commission headed by the Minister of the Presidency, and made up of specialists from the Banco Agricola, the Dominican Integrated Development Institute (IDDI), the Center for Export and Investment (CEI-RD), the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Presidency Social Plan would visit the area on Friday 12 April to meet with them and assess how much funding was needed for modernizing the installations.
President Medina congratulated the producers and farmers for the level of organization that they have achieved with their co-ops and associations and he called for the creation of a “casabe cluster.” The financial support will come from the funds assigned to the President, through the Agriculture Bank at a rate of less than 1% per month.
The President toured the installations where he was shown the cassava bread manufacturing process, the ovens and other machinery that needs to be modernized.