Fruit and vegetable trade is 3.7% of RD exports
SANTO DOMINGO.- In recent years, fruits and vegetables have become one of the most dynamic export items in the Dominican Republic, registering between 2005 and 2013 growth four times greater than the average of total exports. The approach was presented by the Dominican Observatory of International Trade (ODCI) during the Panel "Profile of exports of fruits and vegetables", organized by the ODCI and the Foundation REDDOM.
When presenting a Profile of Fruit and Vegetable Exports, the ODCI Research Coordinator, Pavel Isa Contreras, explained that between 2011 and 2013 64% of vegetable exports corresponded to peppers, which represented 30% of exports totals for the Legumes and vegetables sector. Meanwhile, green beans exports accounted for 17%, cassava 12%, tomatoes 9%, pickles 7% and the rest did not reach 5% of the sector. The export of vegetables is almost completely concentrated in the United States market, remaining until 2013 above 60%.
In the case of fruits, there is a high level of concentration in bananas, so that between 2011 and 2013, it reached 69% of the country's total fruit exports. Avocados and mangoes make up the second largest group of products. For this sector, the United Kingdom market is the most important, due to the significant weight of banana exports to that market, followed by the United States.
Challenges of exports of fruits and vegetables
The document indicates as one of the challenges of the sector the difficulties that the country has faced, and others of the region, to export vegetables to the US market due to barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary controls. It argues that strong institutions and practices are required that reduce the use of non-permitted agrochemicals, and strengthen good practices in the control and management of pests.
Similarly, the country faces the challenge of diversifying its fruit exports and acting to give a new competitive impulse to those of bananas, "due to the intensification of competition in the European banana market due to the preferential treatment in that market. it has been eroding, "commented Isa Contreras.
As in the case of vegetable exports, he argues that it is an unavoidable task to build a solid institutional scaffolding that contributes to increasing yields and that promotes good agricultural practices to improve quality and thus access to markets
The Executive Director of ODCI, Claudio Adams Portes, expressed that with this event the entity continues the process of creating synergy between the public, private and academic sectors regarding the monitoring and strengthening of capacities that allow optimizing international trade between the Republic Dominicana and the rest of the world. He also highlighted the support that ODCI receives from the nine entities that make it up to carry out this and other studies, to complete in recent months three profiles of important lines of our exports, all available for free on the ODCI website .
For his part, Jesús de los Santos, Executive Vice President of the REDDOM Foundation, said that this entity promotes the strengthening of export capacities of vegetables, as a way to collaborate with the improvement of local capacity for vegetable production. "Through this Panel we want to encourage the commitment that we must assume as a nation to promote Good Agricultural Practices, as a way that the fruits and vegetables we produce are in safe conditions to ensure the sustainability of exports," said de los Santos.
After the presentation of Isa Contreras, a panel was made composed of Osmar Benítez, from the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD); Emigdio Gómez, from the Ministry of Agriculture and María de Lourdes Núñez, from the National Competitiveness Council (CNC), who analyzed the challenges of fruit and vegetable exports for the country. The activity was held in the Julio Ravelo Room of the Fountain of the INTEC Library.
Those interested in consulting the Profile of the Exports of Fruits and Vegetables can download or consult the complete document in the link: http://odci.org.do/documentos/
About the ODCI
The Dominican Observatory of International Trade (ODCI) is a permanent academic-institutional space for research, capacity-building, service provision and strategic communication on issues related to foreign trade and its socioeconomic, national and regional impacts. The ODCI is at the service of the public sector, the private sector and the civil society in general of the Dominican Republic.
About REDDOM
The REDDOM Foundation was born in 2010. It promotes well-being, equity and environmental sustainability in rural communities in the Dominican Republic. In collaboration with public and private partners, REDDOM contributes to transforming people's lives through rural economic growth. It provides technical assistance and the development of local capacities that micro, small and medium rural entrepreneurs require to compete in the global market.