Who gets the idea that at some point the cultivation of rice ceases to be one of the most important of the national production and that imported rice replace Creole rice on the Dominican flag (typical food).
“When I haven’t eaten rice, it’s as if I hadn’t eaten” It is one of the most common expressions when a meal is made at home that does not have integrated rice or when by “H” or “R” it is not cooked at home and fast food is bought.
Since the Free Trade Agreement with the United States was signed in 2003, and began to be implemented in 2006, rice farmers have felt that 2025 will be a disastrous year for those who are dedicated to the cultivation of this product, since it is the year scheduled for sensitive agricultural products to be exempted.
The signing of this commercial agreement will be 20 years old when 2023 arrives and despite the claim of the sector that brings together more than 30,000 producers and 300 industries that generate nearly 80,000 jobs, A solution that is beneficial to preserve national production is not yet in sight.
Six years ago, a evaluation of commercial performance and future challenges of DR-Caftaa study that was carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, which highlights the difficult competition that these sensitive products contemplated to be deducted in 2025 would have, such as: meat, dairy, beans, garlic and rice.
Although all these years there has been a lot of talk about the subject and the Dominican ambassador to the United States has said that dialogue is taking place to find alternatives, the truth is that the clock does not stop and the time approaches without there being a light on it.
But why defend rice production?
• Because it’s him primordial food of Dominican families. • Because it is one of the few areas in which the country is self sufficient. • Because this cereal is the breadwinner of more than 30,000 families producers. • Because from the rice come the fodder bales that have served as food sustenance for cattle. • Because the bran or rice paste is used as food for cattle beef, pork and sheep. • Because the rice husk is essential for the bedding of poultry houses or farms for raising chickens or hens.
These reasons illustrate how the unfair competition that the tax relief would create would affect domestic production, and that the Dominican rice producer has to compete at a disadvantage with other countries.
rice figures
In the second edition of the Ruta Ganadera Magazine, whose central theme is “Socio-Economic Impact of Rice Cultivation in the Dominican Republic and the Threat of Free Trade”, agronomist Marcelo Reyes points out that, 32 provinces that have the national geography in 21 rice is produced and that eight have this cereal as their main crop and their main source of income.
Explain what 1,300,000 rice tasks are grown in the Dominican market twice a year and that with this 520,000 direct and indirect jobs are created.
Lidio Martinez Cairo indicates that the area planted with this cereal represents 47% of the total planted in the country and more than 30,000 quilts are produced daily.
In the DR-Cafta it was agreed to liberalize entry taxes or tariffs on imported rice, which will generate an unequal competition between national producers and those from countries such as the United States where this item has large subsidies.
Position.
The Dominican ambassador to the United States, Sonia Guzmán, in her most recent statements has indicated that the DR-Cafta is not being renegotiated or modified, but that, within its flexibilities to review the safeguarding of rice, the possibility of that an extension of the exemption of this product be implemented, which is part of the food tradition of Dominican families.