The Dominican State Sugar Council (CEA), once the bulwark of the nation’s economy, and now reduced to a shadow of its former greatness, has announced the possibilities and opportunities facing the entity with luring investors from China. Pedro Mota Pacheco, the head of the CEA, told El Día reporters that after establishing relations with the People’s Republic of China, the CEA is receiving two and three investor Chinese commissions each week who are looking for land in this area. Pacheco admitted that the state sugar mills only contribute to some 2% of the national sugar yield, yet he said the country had a huge potential to re-launch production.
Pacheco is optimistic for the relaunching of 2 of the 12 sugar mills that have been closed, abandoned or sold off. The CEA boss says that with proper administration the state can once again reclaim its position that once provided 30,000 jobs and produced 60% of Dominican sugar.
He described the refurbishing of the Porvenir sugar mill that has increased production from 10,000 tons to 30,000 tons. In addition, the Pringamosa mill in Hato Mayor is under consideration for re-opening. In order to do this the CEA needs between RD$500 and RD$600 million in financing. An additional part of the recovery plan is the rebuilding and remodeling of the a dozen bateyes, the quarters where imported Haitian laborers lived while working in the sugar fields in harvest time. These are all that is left of the more than 600 that once dotted the Dominican sugarcane fields.
The State Sugar Council for years now has been in the media for numerous corruption scandals regarding what was once vast land holdings.
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El Dia
4 February 2019
