Dominican banana industry earns US$420M yearly

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s banana industry earnsUS$420 million per year and accounts for more than 32,000 jobs, 44% of them fixedand of which 12% are women.

The figures were revealed Tuesday during a meeting of the BananaAccompaniment Measures Program Steering Committee (BAM)). It said more than 80%of the country’s bananas production is organic and intended for export.

During the activity the BAM’s main achievements were highlighted,including a budget of RD$1.0 billion, of which the European Union financed morethan RD$900 million.

Attending the meeting held in the Dominican AgribusinessBoard (JAD) were the ministers of Agriculture, Angel Estevez; Environment, BautistaRojas, National Statistics Office director Pablo Tactuk, and Foreign Relations, Andres Navarro, and JAD CEO Osmar Benitez, amongothers.

As part of the project’s goals reached, the Agriculture Ministryestablished the National Phytosanitary Committee, “a breakthrough with properlymanaged local production and which places the country in compliance with internationalstandards on bananas for export.”