Every day, the farms produce around 11.3 million eggs to satisfy the consumption of an essential protein in the Dominican diet, of which 1.5 million are sent to Haiti, the second market where this product has greater demand after the local one.
Although Haiti remains a major buyer – with exports formal ones that amount to around 48 million eggs per month–, the poultry farmers They have another business partner who has expressed great interest in obtaining this product: Cuba.
The shortage of subject premium to keep his own on his feet poultry sector have led the Caribbean neighbor to add the egg to its long list of imported foods –Cuba imports 80% of the food it consumes–, making purchases valued at $6,726,483.6 from the Dominican Republic between June 2023 and August 2024, according to data from the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (ProDominicana).
“There is significant growth towards Cuba; it’s a market interesting to which we are trying to increase the exports significantly,” said the executive director of the Association of Poultry Producers (ADA), Gregory Marte, who indicated that the companies Exporters are currently in the process of improving the logistics to ship the product, which remains a difficulty.
He closing frontier
Mars acknowledged that the rapprochement between the two countries occurred Following trade tensions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the construction of an irrigation canal to take water from the Masacre River, which led the Government to close its land and air border with Haiti last September.
He closingwhich lasted for more than a month, put the exports of eggswhich stimulated the search for other trading partners to sell the surplus and keep its price stable in the market local. “The government encouraged us to look at that market; the arrangements were made at that time, and it was positive,” Marte said.
While the markets Binationals returned to reactivate after the Government relaxed the closing frontier in October 2023, Cuba made a purchase of $471,660 in eggsfar exceeding the first import recorded that year, of just $42,767 in June.
The exports Dominicans to that market They took a leap in April and surpassed one million dollars, after Cuba announced that it had completed the certification of three companies poultry Dominicans –Grupo Don Julio, Endy Agroindustrial and Agropecuaria Wilse–, which were endorsed for the sale of eggschickens and processed foods to the Caribbean neighbor.
The crisis Cuban
Cuba goes through a deep crisis economic which has affected the already depleted production agricultural sector in that country, which has worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The poultry farmers Cubans They have had to face a shortage of feed so acute that it led them to sacrifice, last June, some 54,000 laying hens in Holguín – the fourth largest city in that country – because they could not maintain them, according to the independent Cuban media 14ymedio.
Added to this is the lack of water and constant electricity, which affects poultry facilities. According to the aforementioned portal, the Cuban Minister of Agriculture, Ydael Pérez Brito, reported at the end of last year that the production of eggs in Cuba had decreased from five million daily in 2020 to 2.2 million in 2023.
He consumption of eggs It has also skyrocketed in the neighboring country due to the high prices of red meat, which have reduced the purchasing power of consumers. Cubans to buy other proteins. This has increased the cost of cardboard eggsplacing it at more than 3,000 pesos Cubans –7,502 Dominican pesos at the current exchange rate–.
For all this, Cuba has sought where to supply its demand for eggs extending the purchase to countries such as the Dominican Republic and Colombia, hoping to import, from the latter, up to 40 million eggs by the end of 2024, according to what Cuban authorities announced in June of this year.
Projection of the exports Dominicans
By August of this year, the exports Dominicans of eggs to Cuba were set at 1.95 million dollars, according to data from ProDominicana.
Free Newspaper tried to contact any of the companies certified to find out about the logistics implemented for shipping products to this market, but it was not possible at the time of closing this information.
A source of the poultry sector informed this media that the Cuban demand has been so dynamic that one of these companies sent almost a million eggs to that country in just one week.
“We understand that these will continue to expand. exportsThere are people who are dedicated to the export business, who buy the egg in the plant, and export it, and there are companies “They are also exporting,” said the executive director of the ADA.
He indicated that the poultry sector still needs to improve ability logistics for this extensionespecially as it relates to the availability of ships leaving for that marketand the ports.
For a Geographical and cost reduction issuethe ideal would be for the shipments in which this merchandise is transported to leave from the port of Puerto Plata.
However, 95.5% of the eggs with shell, fresh, preserved or cooked that left the country during the course of this year did so through the port of Eastern Haina –4.1 million dollars– and the Caucedo multimodal port –239,882 dollars–, according to data from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM).
Still, the main guild poultryman of the country looks favorably on these exports and they consider that, after more companies If certified, the country could expand its supply by sending chickens and other derived products to this Caribbean neighbor.
