NewsWhore
09-06-2006, 07:40 PM
About 58,000 small and medium scale cattle farmers will be affected by the DR's entry into the DR-CAFTA agreement, according to Vice-Minister for Agriculture Luis Ramon Rodriguez. These are mainly small dairy producers who will be swept away by the influx of milk from the United States under the CAFTA arrangement. Rodriguez is a member of the Dominican team that is currently in Washington to iron out the details of the agreement that by the most optimistic estimates, will start in November. To counter the effects of CAFTA, Rodriguez is recommending that the cattle farmers join the government in an effort to obtain better genetics and nutrition for the small and medium cattle operations. He told Listin Diario reporter Modesto Rodriguez that "there is no way to work with the 69,000 cattle farmers in the Dominican Republic, 58,000 of whom own 10 heads or less. We must focus our support." During the meeting between agriculture department leaders and members of the local dairy industry, producers, cheese makers and bottlers, Rodriguez pointed out that CAFTA gives the DR 10 years to "to do what we can to save that part of the sector that is capable of being saved... in other words, some five or six thousand milk producers." Rodriguez said that CAFTA gave the US and the Central American countries the opportunity to send 270 tons of milk per year to the DR until 2020. After that, milk will enter with no limits. As the minister said, "We have 20 years to increase production by 270 tons a year but after 2020, the market will be open."
On the positive side, though, the lower cost of imported milk would benefit local consumers.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)
On the positive side, though, the lower cost of imported milk would benefit local consumers.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#10)