The Ministry of Agriculture and the Special Fund for Agropecuarian Development (FEDA) are contributing RD$130 million to the Asociación Banileja de Productores de Mango (Abapromango) for the construction and equipping of a modern hydrothermal mango processing plant. The producers had requested the installation that they say could double the volume of mango exports to the United States market in 2019. The agreement was signed by Agriculture Minister Osmar Benítez and the president of Abapromango, Onésimo Mejía.
A first payment of RD$15.7 million is for the purchase of the equipment. FEDA will be providing financing for RD$57 million, and another RD$10.3 million will come from the ProRural program of the Presidency for increasing fruit productivity. The government will also be providing 32 tareas of land (1 tarea = 629 sq meters).
The installation is described as the most modern facility of its kind in the Caribbean. The processing facility will comply with sanitary regulations for export of the product to the United States. Benítez said the proposal for the construction of the plant was already approved by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Casimiro Ramos, director of FEDA, said the plant will especially benefit small mango producers.
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Presidencia
24 October 2018
