By Miguel Cruz Tejada
NEW YORK._ Consul General Eligio Jáquez highlighted the growth in exports of Dominican mangoes and their different varieties to the United States markets, predicting that the volume will improve when the Department of Agriculture (USDA) restores the pre-checking of agricultural products in the Dominican Republic, suspended in 2016.
“Graph of the tastiest mango exports in the world in recent years, from the DR to the US market. This trend would be much better when the Pre-checking service, paralyzed since 2016, is managed to be rehabilitated so that we would be on an equal footing with 21 Latin countries!” Jáquez wrote on his Twitter account yesterday, accompanying the text with photos of green mangoes and a table of exports from 2010 to 2022.
Gráfica de las exportaciones del mango más sabroso del mundo en los últimos años, desde RD al mercado de EU. Esa tendencia sería mucho mejor cuando se logre reinstalar el servicio de Prechequeo, paralizado desde el año 2016, así estaríamos en igualdad con 21 países latinos ! pic.twitter.com/DkDXF1n7xw
— Eligio Jáquez (@eligiojaquez) March 14, 2023
The chart compares Dominican and Haitian mango exports to the United States.
Jáquez, who was appointed consul in New York also with the mission of strengthening the US markets for Dominican agricultural producers, continues to advocate for the United States to restore the authorization so that the country can be part of the USDA pre-check and avoid supervision in the US ports that, due to federal protocols, delay the entry of products from the Caribbean country to US markets.
In an interview with this reporter in May 2022, Jáquez said that the Dominican government would seek in Washington the reincorporation of the Dominican Republic into the system of pre-verification of agricultural products that do not have access to the United States markets and will demand equal treatment such as it is delivered to 21 Latin American countries, which facilitates entry into the North American market.
He said that since the beginning of this century, the Dominican Republic was included in the prior control agreement established in 2001 by the Government of Hipólito Mejía when he was Secretary of State for Agriculture.
He pointed out that since 2015 there has been a unilateral paralysis of the US government that decided to break the treaty due to the difficulty of a legal issue.” Afterwards, it has not been easy,” said Jáquez.
He said this agreement facilitated and benefited the entry of Dominican products into the United States markets because they were supervised or controlled at their origin, the Dominican Republic, just like products from Mexico, Central, and South America.
“We will seek, through a commission that will go to Washington, an equal treatment like the one that those 21 Latin American nations have that have pre-checks and enter the United States as if they were VIPs,” added the consul. “Ours do not enter like that.” he explained.
He indicated that the difficulty of 2015 during the PLD governments could not be remedied. Even so, the Dominican Republic has to break that ice to receive the same treatment that other nations receive so that Dominican products can enter and not rot on the docks.
“We are waiting for the Government of the United States, through its health and preventive drug control agencies, to help us raise some confidence in the productive effort of the Dominican Republic so that they do not have difficulties and the goods that are produced in our country, above all, so that fresh products have less difficulty accessing this great market,” he said.
Defining the United States as the large primary and obligatory market for the Dominican Republic, he noted that Washington’s understanding and flexibility are expected to resolve the impediment.
He announced that the Commission would come to the United States to contact the relevant authorities, such as the Department of Agriculture (USDA), for which negotiations are being carried out with the Dominican ambassador in Washington DC, Sonia Guzmán, who processes the corresponding appointments for the Commission.
Who will represent the Dominican Government?
The Commission, Jáquez announced, would be made up of the minister of agriculture, the director of ProDominicana, the president of ADOEXPO, the presidents of CONFRENATO, the Board of Agribusiness and several consuls from the maritime zones of the United States to carry the message of the Dominican Government that he wants equal treatment for the Dominican Republic as it is given to the 21 Latin American nations.
