The Dominican Association of Poultry Farmers warned that the bill that seeks to reduce to zero percent the tariffs applied to the products of the family basket, will destroy national producers and discourages investment in the sector.
In this sense, they called on the Government to desist from the initiative, considering that for its implementation the local industry was not taken into account, nor was the number of jobs that could be lost if it materialized.
The Poultry Farmers Association joins institutions such as AIRD, Confenagro, Aproleche and JAD, which consider that promoting national production, reducing the impact of rising prices of raw materials and other goods used in production, is the best way to face inflation.
The project aims to reduce import costs by eliminating tariffs on raw materials such as corn, soybeans, oil, but poultry farmers understand that these raw materials are already tax-free, so the current price increase is due to the increase in the cost of listing on the stock exchange.
“This bill is the beginning of the rapid substitution of national production and is already discouraging investment in the sector, in addition to the fact that there are no studies or guarantees that with the opening of imports consumer prices will be reduced,” he indicates. the entity in a statement.
They consider that this project opens up countries that subsidize exports and do dumping, that is, sell cheaper in another country than in the market of origin, to position themselves and take over that niche.
“Once they destroy the national productive apparatus, then they adjust prices and no one wins, food security is lost, local industry is destroyed and the consumer does not receive a cheaper product,” they say.
The Dominican Poultry Association understands that the bill also represents a risk of introducing pests and diseases into the country, meaning a risk to the health of consumers due to the abrupt opening of countries without exhausting regulatory processes.
There are 1,200 poultry producers in the country that generate more than 20,000 direct jobs, of which around 100,000 families are supported, contributing, in addition, US$ 900 million a year, equivalent to 1% of GDP, meaning the largest contribution within of agriculture.
The ADA indicates that the Dominican Republic is self-sufficient in the production of chickens and eggs, since they produce 18.5 million birds per month and 260 million eggs, which guarantees that they maintain prices below those of the region, including the United States.