SANTO DOMINGO.- The difficulties and delays by the mills in dispatching rice at 12 pesos per pound to wholesalers and retailers prevents its reaching colmados and small supermarkets on time, newspaper Diario Libre says.

Retailers say the Dominican Rice Factories Association (Ada) doesn’t have sufficient grain, and instead gathers it now.

Daniel Peña president of the wholesalers Association (Amaprosado); Julian Parra, of the market retailers and Jovanny Leyba, of the store retailers, asked the millers to speed up rice deliveries.

"If rice isn’t available in the colmados it’s because the millers have placed unnecessary proceedings that don’t benefit the authorities’ plan," to sell rice at 12 pesos, kidney beans at 23, eggs at three pesos and chicken at 25 per pound, they said.

They said in some cases, despite  taking checks to the factories to pay the quotas reached by consensus, they are not paid the required attention and go into bureaucratic procedures that makes it difficult to receive the product.