The Dominican Republic will be facing a possible 40% increase in the price of their Christmas chicken. Time is now very short for chicks to be grown enough to enter the market for the December—New Year holidays, and, unfortunately the costs are a major impediment. Roasted chicken is a popular holiday meal for low income sectors.
Both large and small poultry farmers are scouring markets for chicks to fatten for the biggest spending part of the year, and the price of a broiler is expected to be up at least 40% on the farm. Currently, poultry is the least expensive meat on the shelves of Dominican markets, with pork pricier due to the outbreak of the African swine flu which caused the sacrifice of over 70,000 animals, according to sources at the Ministry of Agriculture. Beef is relatively expensive here, no matter the time of year.
In an effort to combat any scarcity, the Ministry of Agriculture says it is making lowcost short-term financing available to farms through the Agriculture Bank (Banco Agricola). The ministry says currently well over a billion pesos has been allocated to the poultry sector.
Another effort to get prices to come down is the program financed by the Agriculture Bank to decentralize poultry production, that at present is concentrated in the central Cibao. Just shipping product to the South and the East adds considerable transportation costs to the end consumer. And there are external cost issues a well. Wheat, for example is currently selling about 38% higher than last year at this time. Corn is also way up due to demand from China, Canada, and Brazil.
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Diario Libre
15 November 2021