In the Dominican Republic, the increase in food prices was 0.96%, according to the records of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the month of March this year.
In the same period, the increase in international prices It was 12.6% above February 2022, which represents the highest level on record since 1990, according to the FAO.
This organization, in its Food Price Indexs, saw an increase of 72.6% in March. This is due, according to the entity, to the historical increases experienced by vegetable oil and cereals.
Response of the Dominican Republic to the international context
The director of Strategic Communication of the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, Homer Figueroa, published the information on his Twitter account, in which he also says that “the price index for vegetable oils showed an increase in March of 23.2% compared to February. This sharp rise was fueled by declining supply, rising demand and volatile oil values.”
It adds that the price index for cereals was 17.1% higher than in February in March. This increase is explained by the “surge” of wheat and cereals as a result of the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on the exports of the two countries.
In that sense, he indicated that the Dominican government applies policies to support production, such as financing at zero rate and the subsidy on imports of raw materials; It also applies consumer protection policies, such as fuel subsidies, the increase in direct food subsidies and the sale of products from the basic basket at low prices.
“Now these efforts are joined by a temporary law that will eliminate tariffs on imports of 67 products from the basic food basket for six months,” the document states.
He added: “The Dominican people must be sure that we will handle this international price crisis with the same skill that we apply in the face of the pandemic. Our purpose in this special situation is to protect the budget of Dominican families while maintaining support for national production».
The FAO Food Price Index It is a measure of the monthly variation in international prices of a basket of food products.
The measure is the result of the average of the price indices of five groups of basic products.
