Chicken production has increased; there is enough to meet demand

Prices. In August, production was 18 million.

Chicken production has increased every week this year to meet the demand, so authorizing imports has been a somewhat desperate measure, perhaps due to the responsibility of the State to guarantee consumers their food at fair prices.

The point was made yesterday by the president of the Dominican Poultry Association (ADA), Juan Lucas Alba, who added that before the pandemic, some 16 million chickens were produced monthly, during covid-19 it dropped to 9 million for a while, but that after the support for the recovery of the economy by the Government, month by month the production of the meat has been increasing.

“Last month we had a supply of 18 million chickens, this month it will be more than 18 million and by October we already think we will be above 19 million chicken units—a lot of chicken,” he explained.

Alba indicated that local domestic chicken is produced at a lower cost than importing it from other countries and is of better quality. Hence, he understands that it is necessary to do whatever is needed to avoid putting national production at risk.

He noted that increasing food production is a process: it takes several months in the case of chickens.

He said that the association’s chicken producers have not lowered production, but that it has increased steadily, but that there has also been an increase in demand due to situations such as that of the recent African swine flu that affected the pork sector.