“Right now eggs are expensive, because over the last two weeks they went up by about RD$800 per thousand. A hundred eggs are now selling for RD$450 the large size and the mediums go for RD$430, which is to say the unit will be reaching the consumer at six pesos,” stated Carlos Mercedes, the secretary general of the National District Egg Distributors Association. During a trip through the New Market on Duarte Ave – the principal supplier of the capital – Diario Libre reporters could see that some basic consumer products had increased in price and others had remained stable. Mercedes said that egg farmers had increased their prices by RD$800 per thousand over the past two weeks, and planned to increase the price even further, on the grounds that the Haitian market will now return to buying eggs.
One Mercado Nuevo trader, Andres Mateo Cespedes, said that the prices of rice, beans and cooking oil have remained stable for the last two months in his place of business. “Rice is at RD$18, the “Campo” rice is at RD$22, there are beans at RD$33 and RD$34 and a gallon of cooking oil is at RD$280,” he said. Nevertheless, Bienvenido Taveras, of “Casa Willy”, said that the price of rice has not gone up now, but that a month ago it went up RD$200 for a 125 pound sack. “After they increased it, sales have fallen a lot because rice was at 20 pesos a pound and when you tell a customer that it is 22 pesos a pound, he walks right out the door,” he said. Salted cod increased from RD$105 a pound to RD$108, but herring has remained the same at 85 pesos per pound, said Taveras, adding that “milk is normal, it has not gone up in price this month.”