SANTO DOMINGO — The Dominican Republic’s leading agricultural industry body is sounding the alarm over potential expansions to agricultural imports, urging the national government to reject broader market access for foreign rice and chicken to protect decades of progress toward domestic food sovereignty.
The National Confederation of Agricultural Producers (Confenagro), which represents thousands of farming and livestock operations across the country, issued the formal warning this week, outlining that a sudden expansion of imported rice and chicken would undercut local producers and erode hard-won gains in national food self-sufficiency. Even amid widespread global volatility that has pushed up input costs for agricultural sectors worldwide, the organization noted that Dominican domestic producers have managed to sustain consistent output levels — even as they grapple with steep price hikes for critical imported supplies such as chemical fertilizers.
Confenagro emphasized that rice and poultry production are two of the Dominican Republic’s most strategic agricultural sectors. Over recent years, the country has built up robust domestic capacity that meets nearly all of national demand for these staple foods, a milestone that reduces reliance on volatile global commodity markets. The group cautioned that opening the border to large-scale additional imports during the current period of global economic uncertainty would deliver lasting harm to local smallholder and commercial farmers alike. Once damaged, the confederation added, domestic production capacity would be slow and difficult to rebuild, leaving the country more vulnerable to future global food shocks.
The latest warning follows a controversial decision earlier this year, when Dominican authorities authorized new chicken imports to address temporary domestic shortages and cool soaring retail prices for the staple protein. That move already sparked sharp political pushback and widespread concern across the domestic agricultural community, with many producers warning that temporary market access could become permanent.
To address the current challenges of high input costs and consumer price pressures without damaging local production, Confenagro has put forward a package of alternative policy proposals. Key among these is expanding incentives for increased adoption of organic fertilizer production and use across the sector, a shift that would cut Dominican agriculture’s dependence on costly imported chemical inputs and bring down overall production costs for local producers. The association confirmed that it remains in active, constructive dialogue with national government authorities, working to find coordinated policy solutions that safeguard both the livelihoods of domestic agricultural producers and the long-term food security of all Dominican consumers.