The general manager of the Reserve Bank, Samuel Pereyra, reported that this entity will have RD$10 billion available to finance the 2022-2023 rice harvest, with a 6% preferential rate to support that sector of the economy and contribute to food security.
Pereyra said that rice producers and millers represent one of the most important and dynamic sectors of agriculture, due to their ability to supply the nation, and for their significant contribution to the generation of jobs and wealth in the country.
In an act that was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, Pereyra said that Banreservas, through its Rice Pledge program, has allocated RD$56 billion, of which it has disbursed RD$46.376 million, since 2012 until 2021.
“Our participation is a significant 43.37%, in the context of the Dominican financial system as a whole. Just last year we disbursed RD$5.3 billion, and this time the sum rises to RD$10 billion,” concluded Pereyra, in front of dozens of producers and millers from 21 provinces who gathered at the place where the activity took place.
The president of the National Federation of Rice Producers, Marcelo Reyes Jorge, thanked Banreservas and the Ministry of Agriculture, after considering that the Pledge program is the main pillar that sustains the stability of the national rice sector, by guaranteeing stability and levels acceptable levels of profitability for participants in the rice sector, through the incentive and equitable regulation of production, processing, marketing and consumption.
“Today the country cultivates about 1.3 million rice tasks in 21 provinces and 91 municipalities, forming part of a Dominican rice culture. If the rice dies, the Dominican countryside dies,” said Reyes Jorge at a ceremony held at the Cerro Alto Mountain Club in La Vega, which was also attended by the president of the Dominican Association of Rice Factories, Fausto Pimentel.
What was done a year before there was a pandemic
Between 2013-2019, it was reported that the pledge program generally covered 60% of the rice inventory at that time and a significant portion of beans, garlic and onion, which constituted State support for the national producers, which was translated or is translated in benefit of the productive activities of the farmers.
