MAO. The main rice associations of the northwest and northeast of the country, as well as organized trade and other entities, marched through the different streets of Mao, demanding that the authorities intervene, in order not to be affected by the tax exemption offered the Free Trade Agreement between the Dominican Republic and Central America and the United States.
In addition to the march, they held a rally where the country’s rice producers and millers, their main leaders, warn that if this position is maintained, this sector would be leading to its disappearance and would seriously affect the productive apparatus and economic activities. of around 92 municipalities and whose residents depend on 70 percent of the cereal production.
They point out that the tax exemption offered by the Free Trade Agreement, if the government did not intervene, would lead to the certain death of the rice sector, which despite the difficulties, maintains a stable production of about 14 million quintals of cereal and that supplies the national market.
Currently, from the production of rice they live around 80 thousand families, indirectly leaving close to 300,000 jobs on the streets, if there is no change in the DR CAFTA negotiation.
During the concentration, in addition to the rice leaders, leaders of the Merchants Associations, the Dominican Agribusiness Board, agricultural producers, household appliances, health, livestock farmers, among other entities that in one way or another, belong to the rice marketing chain participated.
During the activity, a document was delivered to the provincial governor of the Valverde Mao province, Deysi Aquino, so that she could send it to the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, so that he intervenes in the face of the threat that currently exists, with doing Some 32,000 rice producers will disappear by the year 2025, with the arrival in the country of a large amount of rice from the United States, at a cost well below national production.
They maintain that food security in the Dominican Republic is part of rice production and that if said tax materializes by the year 2025, we would be facing the disappearance not only of the rice sector, but also of agriculture in a general sense.
The leaders of the agricultural sector maintain that at this moment it is vital that the authorities address the problem, due to the social convulsions that this would entail, since they are talking about the massive bankruptcy of those who live from the activities, one of the important to the national economy.
During the concentration of a large part of the rice producers from the northwest and northeast of the country, representatives of organized commerce, from the northwest line and those who represented the associations of merchants, hardware stores, chamber of commerce and production, were also present. neighborhood associations, professionals and those who offered their support to rice producers, since they are also part of the economic activity of the region that generates the production of cereal.
According to these leaders, the tax exemption from the tax offered by the Free Trade Agreement between the Dominican Republic, Central America and the United States, if maintained would be a fatal blow to the national economy, since rice production supports thousands of families. .
In this sense, they point out that rice is the only crop that can be kept in warehouses, since it is not perishable, which keeps its prices stable throughout the year, so affecting that sector with said treaty would be serious. cause a very difficult situation in economic terms.
The leaders of the main organized trade associations of the northwest line believe that the rice sector currently needs the support of all sectors of national life and the government, so that the latent threat does not materialize. .
Among the entities present in the concentration of rice producers in the municipality of Mao in the Valverde province, are the National Association of Rice Producers, the Dominican Association of Rice Factories, the Mao Ironmongers Association, the Mao Valverde Merchants Association, among other.
