Two weeks before Christmas Eve, the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, avoided giving figures concrete about how much pork production can the country wait Decembergiven the losses that pig farmers have suffered due to the incidence of swine fever (APP) throughout this year, but asserted that there will be “between 6% to 8%” more meat than last year, a period in which the institution reported 1,426,040 quintals in total.
The official assured that both the pig like other foods of greater consumption – such as chickenrice or potatoes – can be guaranteed to the population for the christmas festivities but, in the case of pigrecognized that imports will continue to be necessary to satisfy consumption this season.
“All life has been imported pig in the Dominican Republic. At the best of times, we produced 70% of consumption. Now, obviously, imports have increased a little more due to the issue of swine fever“said Cruz after the presentation of the Investment Fund of Biosecurity Porcine, an initiative that seeks to finance farms to adopt modern and strict controls on agricultural health.
Imports of meat pig –mainly brought from USA via the Free Trade Agreement between the Dominican Republic, Central America and USA (DR-Cafta) – will exceed 300 million dollars this year, according to the president of the Dominican Federation of Pork Farmers (Fedoporc), Miguel Ángel Olivo.
Lower production
Olivo –who directs an entity that brings together 14 cooperatives and producer associations pig in the country – explained that, before swine fever, producers took between 100,000 to 110,000 pigs weighing about 110 kilos to the slaughterhouse each month, an amount that currently “is not even 35,000 pigs.”
However, he remembered that there are many small producers of piglets that will be able to satisfy consumption during the Christmas season.
“Always the roast pig it’s not him pig big, but the small, and always that pig has been supplied by the small producersso I think there will not be problems with the lack of meat pig for the consumption of the Dominican people,” he said.
Agricultural production
Cruz assured that the agricultural sector can guarantee “quite significant production” for the christmas festivities.
In the case of other items, such as chickenexplained that there will be 24.7 million units during the month of Decemberexceeding last year’s 22.5 million units.
Likewise, the rice sector It has 14.5 million quintals in store of this cereal, without counting what remains to be harvested from the current production cycle, which has not yet concluded.
“We have a fairly stable agricultural production, a concerning“, he highlighted, indicating that the country will have “the enough food” for this season.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Bank announced this Tuesday the launch of the Swine Biosecurity Investment Fund, an initiative that will provide financing to increase health controls on pig farms and prevent diseases such as African swine fever (ASF), a virus that has become endemic in the country. The fund is made up of loans of 5 million dollars granted through the Agricultural Bank and another 5 million in support subsidized by the Plant and Animal Health Inspection Service from the United States Department (USDA-APHIS), for a total of 10 million dollars (about 644 million pesos) with which loans will be granted to producers who request it and certify their farms as safe.
