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BiggerDominican Republic suspends banana exports; seeks to ensure price stability
The Minister of the Presidency and president of the National Council for Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security (Conassan) said that the measure will be reviewed in 30 days.
The Minister of the Presidency, Joel Santos Echavarría, headed this Thursday an extraordinary session with the National Council for Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security (Conassan), in which he suspended the export of whole bananas, to guarantee the stability of the prices of this product.
The decision, taken through Resolution 05-2023, establishes that the measure will take effect from Monday, September 18, and will be reviewed in 30 days; it instructs the Ministry of Agriculture to notify, through the corresponding channels, the companies involved in the production of the musacea.
It also instructs the forwarding of the resolution to the Directorate General of Customs (DGA), the Ministry of Defense (MIDE), and the Specialized Corps for Land Border Security (Cesfront), as well as its publication on the website of the ministries that make up the National System for Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security in the Dominican Republic, in compliance with the provisions of the General Law on Free Access to Public Information.
This measure is by Law No. 1-12 of the National Development Strategy 2030, which establishes that the Dominican State must guarantee the productivity, competitiveness, and environmental and financial sustainability of agro-productive chains to contribute to food security.
Present at the Conassan meeting were Rafael-Blanco-Peralta, secretary of Conassan, as well as representatives of the ministries of Agriculture, Economy, Planning and Development, Public Works, Public Health, Education, Finance, Women, Industry, Commerce and MiPymes, Higher Education, Science and Technology, Environment and Proconsumidor, among others.
Why don’t they just come out and say the suspension of the export of bananas to other countries is because of a shortfall of bananas for domestic consumption? It is a shortfall caused by the damage to the crops from TS Franklin. The stability of prices is government saying no price gouging is to take place because of the shortage. It is not difficult to surmise this cleverly timed announcement comes about just after the border is closed, no exports to Haiti means bananas previously selected for Haiti are available to augment those set aside for Dominicanos.
The overwhelming number of banana exports went to Europe but the export trade has become increasingly unprofitable with a fall in prices .The price of bananas in shops in the DR has been relatively stable for many years with only temporary increases after bad weather . to stop exports for a month means that importing countries will buy more from the large exporting countries and will regard the DR as an unstable supplier . A really quite unfathomable decision !!