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Agriculture Minister Osmar Ben\u00edtez backs the proposal by producers for only serving locally produced fruit breakfast juices at public schools. He sees as feasible the proposal made in May by small fruit producers and processing companies who say they are able to supply the fruit for the public school breakfast but also for other government social programs the low cost mess halls (comedores economicos), social plans, and public hospitals.<\/p>\n
The fresh fruit companies want a share of a market that moves around RD$23 billion a year. In making the announcement, Ben\u00edtez said: “This is part of the decision that President Danilo Medina has taken to promote business in this value chain that integrates all segments of the chain and that allows everyone to participate in a market that the government has created\u201d<\/p>\n
“If the small, medium and large farmers have access to the local markets, the farmers will earn money to invest and expand their farms, and that is creating wealth in the rural area, and in the countryside, creating consumers who will generate resources, who will receive income and will move the economy,” he added.<\/p>\n
The president of the Committee of the Fruit Clusters of the country, C\u00e9sar Aybar, said that the initiative approved by the government would improve the quality of life of small producers, which will increase the number of jobs in rural areas. Aybar, who is general manager of the agribusiness Nikay Bio Proceso, a company that processes fruit pulp, believes that the initiative would generate a movement of more than RD$1.2 billion to RD$1.4 billion each year among pulp producers and processors, in addition to creating a lot of direct jobs.<\/p>\n
The proposal seeks to guarantee that by 2020 100% of the foreign fruit pulps that are used in the school breakfast programs be replaced by locally-produced pineapple, strawberry, mango, and other juices made from locally-grown fruits.<\/p>\n
Osmar Ben\u00edtez met with the fruit producers, the administrator of the Agricultural Bank, Carlos Segura Foster, and the director of the Student Welfare Institute, (Inabie) Ren\u00e9 J\u00e1quez.<\/p>\n