The Minister of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, Angel Estevez, stated it had maintained contacts with officials and businessmen from various countries, including Russia and Canada, which are interested in buying fruits and vegetables produced in the Dominican Republic.
Angel Estevez made this statement during a meeting he had with agricultural producers to review the trade and health actions they needed to be take to end, in the shortest time possible, the veto that the United States imposed on certain fruits and vegetables after they detected, in Punta Cana, an outbreak of the Mediterranean fruit fly.
The meeting was attended by entrepreneurs, traders, exporters, supermarket owners, and the executive director of the Centre for Export and Investment of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), Jean Alain Rodriguez, who highlighted the efforts being made to open new markets.
The president of the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD), Osmar Benitez, spoke about the approaches they had had with companies from Canada and other countries that "had contacted the Dominican Agribusiness Board inquiring about Dominican fruit and vegetables."
At the meeting, the executive vice president of the Hotels and Tourism Association of Dominican Republic (ASONAHORES), Arturo Villanueva, offered the support of his organization and said they could place a good part of the products in the tourism sector.
According to Villanueva, the tourism sector is going through a good phase, and spends more than $500 million a year on agricultural products.
Estevez recalled the steps taken by the Ministry of Agriculture as soon as they were notified of the presence of the fly, such as doubling the number of traps, eliminating host plants, and spraying in the vicinity of the Punta Cana International Airport, where the outbreak was detected, among other measures. According to the minister, after conducting a technical analysis and checking the traps against the Mediterranean fruit fly throughout the country, they can indicate that the bug is not in any other area of the country.
Source: laprensagrafica.com