THE SEIBO.-The president of the Dominican Association of Milk Producers (APROLECHE), Eric Rivero, affirmed this Thursday that there are sectors with marked interests that want the country to continue delivering powdered milk at school breakfast, to the detriment of national production , but that for understandable reasons that cannot be allowed.
“Although a lot of progress has been made, many things are missing, “because there are interests from all sides, there are interests that want to continue making or delivering powdered milk at school breakfast, but that’s not going anymore,” said the livestock leader during a meeting of the Livestock Improvement Project (Promegan), held in El Seibo, with the assistance of agricultural leaders and producers from that area.
Rivero, also an agricultural adviser to the Executive Branch, said that the current government is strengthening the National Council for the Regulation and Promotion of the Dairy Industry (CONALECHE), while affirming that the law that created it “has many enemies.”
“The Conaleche soldiers are us (referring to the ranchers and milk producers), and for us to be brave soldiers and for us to know what we defend, we have to know what the Conaleche is, what its law orders to be done,” he explained. .
The Conaleche was created by Law number 180-01, already in force for 21 years, and among its considerations it establishes that the country meets the necessary conditions for self-sufficiency in milk production, and that to achieve this goal it is urgent to improve the system of exploitation.
Likewise, it constitutes an unfair trade practice to import subsidized dairy products, because their sale prices do not correspond to the costs of milk production in the Dominican Republic.
Rivero said that in order to defend Law 180-01, “we have to get to know Conaleche, and that will be a mission for next year, hold five seminars in the country so that we know what Conaleche is, what its mission is and What do we have to know about this institution, to always defend it, not just for now?
With such purposes, he said that in 2023 ranchers will be invited to a series of workshops that will be given so that everyone knows what Conaleche represents and what Conaleche is, “and we all become soldiers of Conaleche, which is the main historical achievement of the livestock sector”.
He called on national producers to take care of and defend Conaleche, because they understand that it is the greatest achievement, and in this regard he said that “many times in the fields we only think of Conaleche when we go to look for a 6% loan.
He said that it is up to everyone to ensure that an order from President Abinader is complied with, that the school breakfast be supplied with one hundred percent Dominican milk.
“And it is up to all of us to ensure that this is fulfilled, because the interests are many. The President and we are doing our part, but among all of us we have to take care of that achievement”, he affirmed.
He maintained that all those things that are being achieved, with the combined effort of all, “is what interests us and what interests President Abinader.”
The activity was also attended by the executive director of Conaleche, Miguel Laureano; Julio César Echavarría, deputy director of Livestock; Berty Chireno, president of the El Seibo Cattlemen’s Association, as well as leaders and agricultural producers from the El Seibo province and surrounding areas.
