President Danilo Medina was in the beach area of Bayahibe on Friday, 12 September 2014 to attend the 15th Agribusiness and Farmers’ Meeting organized by the Agribusiness Board (JAD). The President heard proposals from farming sector representatives, including a request for the Ministry of Foreign Relations to lead a campaign aimed at stimulating Dominican exports and to play a key role their promotion, with ambassadors taking a more active part. The proposal was made despite the fact that the government has an entire department whose role is to promote exports, the Center for Exports and Investment (CEI-RD), and whose director Jean Alain Rodriguez was present at the event.
The JAD meeting participants also proposed to design a simple mechanism for farmers to sell directly to the state, cutting red tape.
The farming sector wants the government to send a bill to Congress that defines weights and measurements as a way of standardizing trade between producers and buyers. Participants called for continued improvements in road connections between identified productive farm areas.
They also requested the construction of provincial and regional produce collection centers to be managed by producer organizations for reception, cleaning, packaging and transport to cities and major consumption areas.
The producers also called for a bill to be drafted giving buyers 30 days to pay for the farm produce. Supermarkets are known to pay for produce in 90 days, while sellers have to pre-pay taxes on the sale to the government.