Limber Cruz on chicken shortage: “By the end of the month everything will be back to normal”.

Santo Domingo – Given the chicken shortage registered in the Dominican Republic’s markets and the product price increase, the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, assured this Saturday that “at the end of the month, everything will be normalized.”

Chicken farmers in some Santo Domingo markets have declared to Listin Diario that there has not been much white meat production, which has affected sales and caused speculation and an increase in the price of the food.

When asked about this crisis, the minister explained, “There is a transitory situation due to a weather problem and high temperatures.”

According to Cruz, another reason was the low quality of the raw materials consumed by the chicken during its growth: corn and soybean oil. “They did not have the quality or sufficient nutrients, and this caused the chicken not to have the yield it usually has in the 45 days of the process,” he told this newspaper.

The official said that the government does not intervene in purchasing raw materials, as this is the responsibility of the large industries that produce this product.

However, Cruz said that “good corn has already arrived” in the country for new chicken production.
The official said that to control the shortage, they have removed between six and seven million pounds of chicken, which they had pledged.

“Yesterday we had 2.2 million out of the pledge, out of the warehouses so that they can reach all the sales outlets and all the consumers,” he said.

“I am convinced and sure that yesterday they were distributed in the capital, in San Cristóbal, San Juan and Santiago; what happens is that we cannot simultaneously reach all points (of sale) in the country. That is impossible,” he added.
Cruz made these statements during the International Seminar “Legislative Excellence: innovation, reforms, and party cohesion” organized by the governing Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM).