Agribusinessman and consultant Marcelino Vargas warns that Dominican agricultural production must become more technical to prevent its disappearance as a sector.
Today, efficiency and competitiveness should be a significant concern of the institutions that lead the production” of agriculture and livestock in the country, said the cattle rancher and rice producer.
He said adapting our agriculture to the new times is essential, or we will fail and disappear as a sector. He specified “I have always considered that producers must make proposals and share them with governments, which must establish clear rules to stimulate the agricultural sector to be more efficient and competitive every day in this globalized world.”
He pointed out that a good example of this is the positive response that President Luis Abinader has offered to rice producers, who have been expressing concerns for years about their possible disappearance, if rice from the United States were allowed to enter the country paying zero tariff. He recalled that the president issued decree 693-24, which says that only importing 23,300 tons of rice per year from the United States would be allowed at zero rates, and the rest brought would pay a tax of 99%.
He explained that this is defending the country and our rice farmers. Vargas pointed out that he has been proposing for more than twenty years that we all propose together a zero tariff rate as of 2024 for the items affected by the DR-CAFTA, which has not been possible since only rice farmers have asked for protection from the Government so as not to be affected and received support from President Abinader.
He said that it should be taken into account that surpluses of U.S. products are sold below their actual prices. “We believe that starting this year, we are going to have problems with imports of milk, pork, chicken, beans, onions and garlic,” he said
He added that dairy products, especially powdered and liquid milk, their entry from the European Union pays zero tariff as of 2023. In recent years, UHT liquid milk has been imported from the European Union and sold in supermarkets at around 20 pesos cheaper than our milk. Vargas said that in Europe, both the producer and the supermarkets have a higher price than ours, and we ask ourselves: How is it possible that the supermarkets here sell that milk much cheaper than ours? In addition, they may have high export subsidies or it is likely that it is not cow’s milk. With cheeses, these cases are often repeated.
He once again proposed an alliance between producers and the Government so that some essential items would not disappear from our fields in the future. The Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD) can participate in this grand alliance.
He warned that action must be taken now so tomorrow is not too late. Rice is likely to be one of the essential items least affected by the payment of zero tariffs on imported products.
He explained, “Dominicans don’t like rice imported from the United States because it’s harder than ours when cooked; it grows less and doesn’t fill the consumer, and it is a little more expensive than Dominican rice.”
Vargas said that these inconveniences mean that the business has to mix that rice with ours to be able to consume it, but we have the power to prohibit it from being sold mixed.
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