The principal federations of grocery wholesalers and retailers reached an agreement with the government and thus will desist from their call to a national grocer’s strike that had been set for 21 and 22 April. The owners of small grocery shops, or colmados, were demanding participation in the government sponsored food sales program, Alimentos para Todos. The government, through its Inespre department, had become unfair competition with the colmados, and had set up fix sales points near the colmados and was using small trucks to sell low-cost produce to Dominicans throughout the country. The authorities of Inespre, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce committed to integrate the merchants, and agreed to grant the wholesalers a 12% profit on goods sold through the program. The retailers would receive a 3% profit. Furthermore, Inespre will sell the subsidized produce to the colmados within the next seven days.
