Farm producers say high prices are because of intermediaries

ESPAILLAT. Businessmen assembled in the National Farming Confederation (Confenagro) demanded from the government greater attention and facilities in order that the products from the fields reach the population cheaper, and they blame the high prices of farm products on what they call "the chain of intermediaries."

Confenagro began last weekend what it has called "The Route of the National Production," with which it tries to call attention to the efforts that the agricultural entrepreneurs are carrying out to produce foodstuffs.

In the community of Piedra Blanca, Bonao, the cattle farmers there built a collection center with the capacity to store 1800 liters of milk a day, which receives all the milk that the small milk farms produce in that area.

The small milk producers make up 95% of milk production at the national level.

Nevertheless, there are others centers for receiving milk, such as in the case of the South area, where nearly 200 producers, gather between 15,000 and 16,000 liters of milk a day. "In the municipality of Duverge, there are nearly 100 milk producers and on the Northwest Line there are several examples," said Erick Riviero, the President of Confenagro and of the Association of Milk Producers (Aproleche).

In the area of the Cibao, there are 12 collection centers for milk which receive an average of 100,000 liters of milk a day. "Those centers have helped to democratize and stabilize the price of milk, selling it to the consumers at RD$22.00 per liter," added Riviero.

In all of the country there are 90 collection centers foremilk financed totally by the National Milk Council (Conaleche) at a cost of more than RD$1.2 billion.

Some small producers have formed family companies, where part of their production is converted into cheeses.

In this sense, Vitrbo Martinez, a farm producer in Bonao,, says that the milk products produced by some farmers are of first quality.

"This is where the "Lachapelle" cheese factory was installed, which has all of the available technology and has involved all of the family, producing a quality product," he said.

Another example is in the section of Bejucal, also in Bonao, where the cacao producers have achieved a genetic farm in order to produce quality seedlings.

Lepido Batista, a cacao expert, said that 95% of the producers of this crop live in poverty and have less than 50 tareas in production. He added that here some 40 varieties of cacao are produced which are distributed at low cost among the producers in the national territory. The seedlings that are produced here by a system of graphs are placed in a climate controlled area.

The production of rice, poultry and pork

The president of the Rice Producers Association of the Northeast, Cesar Espaillat, said that the country produces 11 million quintals of rice every year and that the producers only sell directly 15% of this amount. With respect to the livestock, he reported that the produces in the Cibao, formed a company in order to produce chicken and pig feed which reaches the producers at a low price, so that it is more profitable to produce these foodstuffs in the country.