The president of the Dominican Federation of Merchants (FDC) says that consumers should see savings in essential imported food products next year now that the government has changed procedures for issuing import permissions. Ivan García, president of the FDC, said on the D’Agenda TV program with Hector Herrera Cabral, that in the past government import permits were handled by a small group of companies. He estimated overvaluation at RD$100 billion. He said this resulted in consumers paying excessive prices for food products, such as onions and garlic.
Over its eight years in government, the Medina administration delegated to the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD) to handle the import permits. The JAD bourse auctioned these. García said this resulted in one or two companies taking control of the market of several essential consumer items. Recently, the Abinader administration announced the Ministry of Agriculture would manage the permits.
Garcia explained another recent for rising consumer food prices. He said the shutdown of the tourism industry and Haiti border markets caused an overnight collapse of many farm products’ demand. The distortion in the market, loss of market distribution channels, and a lack of adequate government response to the unexpected yet critical situation, caused several producers to lose their entire production. Production is only now gradually restoring to levels that can meet the demand.
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Diario Libre
22 November 2020