NewsWhore
02-19-2007, 04:30 PM
Tomatoes are an important crop for tens of thousands of people in the Dominican Republic. According to Hoy newspaper, this successful crop is in danger of being eliminated by a flood of cheap tomatoes from huge California agro-business plantations when the country enters the DR-CAFTA agreement. The elimination of tariffs would allow the Californian tomatoes into the DR, effectively doing away with one of the country's most modern harvests. After years of experimentation, mechanization and industrialization, the Dominican tomato harvest is a RD$600 million a year industry that generates over 100,000 jobs. According to Osmar Benitez, executive vice-president of the Dominican Agro-business Council (JAD), a tripartite agreement between the government, the private sector and the tomato growers has successfully pushed forward a program that has been successful in producing high-quality tomatoes for local industries such as Linda, Victorina, Jaja, La Famosa, Baldom and Espalsa, which finance a large part of the harvest each year. Local harvesters around the country are averaging between 18 and 20 tons of tomatoes per acre, according to Hoy. According to Felix Garcia, the president of the association of processors of tomatoes and other crops, local agriculture and industry maintain the Dominican market well supplied with the product.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#14)
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#14)