If the Dominican Republic produces 750,000 chickens every day, why does it continue to import them?

Santo Domingo — Taking advantage of low prices in the international market, selling to the sausage industry, and supplying to meet domestic demand are the main reasons why the Dominican Republic imports chicken despite a local production that averages 750,000 units in the local market.

According to data from the Dominican Republic’s Export and Investment Center (ProDominicana), imports of chicken pieces and edible offal alone led the country to import US$115.8 million in 2024, a figure that is striking, given that current chicken production is around 22.5 million units per month, according to the Dominican Poultry Farming Association (ADA).

“In a scenario where the price of chicken on the international market falls below the cost of production, some exporting countries such as Brazil or the United States – the two main countries from which the Dominican Republic buys – place their surpluses in foreign markets at very low prices,” explained the association in response to Diario Libre.

These situations can, at certain times, compete with national production, which, in the opinion of Wilfredo Cabrera, president of the National Confederation of Agricultural Producers (Confenagro), merits an effort on the part of the authorities to prioritize the purchase of Dominican-produced chicken.

He indicated, by way of example, that there are still government programs that continue to purchase imported chickens despite the resolutions issued by the Government itself that they should be supplied with national production. This situation generates “unnecessary pressure” on the sector.

Dominicans prefer local
Both ADA and Confenagro agree that the softness, juiciness, flavor, and texture of fresh local chicken make Dominicans prefer it over imported chicken.

“Imported chicken, generally frozen, tends to be drier, rubbery and with less flavor, due to the effects of cold storage. Housewives, chefs and any regular consumer notice the difference. Even in processed products such as hamburgers, it is possible to distinguish between a fresh Dominican breast and an imported one,” said the ADA.

Suspension from Brazil
Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture announced the suspension of imports of poultry products from Brazil due to the detection of an outbreak of avian flu at a commercial farm in the south of the country, following a decision by 11 other countries that also halted their purchases.

“Thanks to the level of production we have today, sanitary problems from abroad do not affect us as much. If we had depended exclusively on imports, for example, from the United States, with persistent sanitary problems due to avian flu, or recently from Brazil (…) we would now have a very big supply problem,” Cabrera observed.

Thus, chicken imports coexist with local production, and although competition is sometimes generated in the domestic market, the poultry sector has proven sufficient to meet consumer demand for the product.