Crybabies this is the result of the excellent Neo-libreal policies of globalization that the most honorable modernist Narco-Lie-onel has enacted.

You need to attend more FUNGOLDLE conferences to complete your full indoctrination so you can better understand these policies of national self destruction.

What are you guys a bunch of Luddites!

They haven't be brought to the edge of bankruptcy because of imports.

They have been brought to the edge of bankruptcy because of their very own laziness and complacency.

Ah Anthony - I sincerely hope conditions of life will allow you to slop hogs. What do you do for a living. Do you get you pinkies dirty apart from when you change toner cartridges?

DomRat, do not waste time on anthonyc. he is just a delusional poseur and arriviste who thinks that he is Bill Gates. as to the pig farmers...maybe Atabey will explain to them that bankruptcy is just the price they have to pay to enjoy the wonders of free trade and neoliberalism.

Producers will organize three regional protests

Agrarian leader Tió Pimentel explains that the concentrations seek to demonstrate a show of strength and draw the President Leonel Fernandez attention to the fact that imports of pork, milk, rice, garlic, beans and other items " break domestic producers, with the complicity of the import mafia that include some of his government officials".

Lie-onel will immediately dispatch Atabey directly from FUNGOLDE to educate these ungrateful peasants on the benefits of Neo-liberal "free-trade" modernist global Narco-marco economic policies that have made all the members of the PLD Political Committee multi-millionaire (in dollars of course) beyond their wildest dreams at the expense of the Dominican 99%!

http://www.7dias.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=112033

DomRat,

In a country where labor is so cheap it is unconscionable to fathom that the DR's hog producers cannot produce their product at a competitive price compared to Imports.

They got Lazy with price supports and subsidies and now want more help from the Government instead of trimming the fat and becoming more efficient.

And yes, I have done my share of farm work and know for a fact how easy pork production is compared to other livestock such as poultry and cattle.

Josie,

I need a laugh....What the hell is "the import mafia"?

Ask you associates on calle 8!

There are only short pauses in grain ships taking in 25,000 tons at a whack mostly for the local chicken and pig’s farms. All this imported feed along with the trucking and stevedoring add to the cost. So what do you suggest - if 10? a pound makes the difference between local produced pork and imported you want to go cheap – BUT those farmers buy from local markets and their kids go to schools and employ by ripple effect the community? Screw free trade it ruins nations. Watch the descent of the U.S. of A.

Way back in late 70's early 80's the U.S. government 'helped' the Dominican Republic - and Haiti as they periodically do. They exterminated the native hog/pig species living here starting at the Eastern tip of the Island and worked across Dominican Republic then on into and across Haiti. One used to see pickup laden with seed kernels from the royal palms that were fed to the hogs. The Crillio hogs loved them and thrived on this native feed plus the avocadoes and other fruits and roots they could get at. The breed of pig has changed and also the diet.

DomRat,

the only people who get "screwed" by Free-trade are those who make up the Entitlement Group! Under your ideals you would have heavily subsidized pig farms paid for by the already overburdened tax payers with no chance of significant growth.

Free-Trade creates jobs!

The Hogs that were slaughtered in the late 70's were because of Porcine Fever. A highly contagious disease that not only threatened the the Pigs in the D.R but was a threat to other countries Pork production through export. It sucked but had to be done.
And that was over 30 YEARS AGO! And the idea you could have a thriving pork industry with Palm Nuts as feed is just a glaring example of your ignorance of basic Livestock husbandry. Sure you can use it to supplement the feed of a few hogs for a small farm where production isn't needed but no way could it have been industrialized on a large scale economically.

Written by: josean,

"Ask you associates on calle 8!"

Really?

Is that all you have?

You are actually blaming the Cubans from Miami for the problems of the Dominican Pork Producers?

says the know nothing anthonyc

In a country where labor is so cheap it is unconscionable to fathom that the DR's hog producers cannot produce their product at a competitive price compared to Imports.


pig rearing is not labor intensive. it is the cost of feedstock that drives up the input price. because of economies of scale, the grains that feed hogs are cheaper to produce in the USA than they are here. why do i bother? anthonyc, get the GED, then we can talk

anthonyC????? come on man... it's called subsidized corn in the US.... fool!!!!! Same with beef... ask the Mexican corn growers who couldn't compete with US corn prices if it was "because of their very own laziness and complacency."

Both sides have points in this debate, but small nations like the DR have little control over these mighty issues, and are thus forced to play the game by the rules of the big powers. That's the pragmatic stance; any other stance needs a serious resource endowment, oil for instance, and lots of it, to make any counter attempt even imaginable. And as events have demonstrated, even having such an natural endowment is not sufficient to guarantee sound economic policy and fiscal management in a nation. Open trade allows for much more potential positive outcomes than restricting or creating anti-import controls.

Chile, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and a host of other nations have demonstrated that while not perfect, their open trade systems provide far better outcomes than say countries like the DR. The stats don't lie and you can see it in the peoples health, education, sanitation, low corruption levels, and strong macro-economics.

As for the huge US and European subsidies to their farmers, that's a huge mistake! When terminated or largely reduced it will bring forth a better world wide system. Japan & other industrialized nations also share the blame in creating these distortions to trade.

So both sides have points in this debate. But as I said in the opening: small nations like the DR seldom, if ever, have a say in these Macro decisions.

DR should have taken the plunge back in 1966 and gone Full Throttle with the EI, or Export Industrialization model. Our leadership, what's new?, let us down. And we have been playing catch up ever since. Time to leave the historical BS to the ash heap of history and recognize that DR's future rests on attracting lots of good investments, EXPORTING as much as possible, investing in a sound K-12 National system of education, strong infrastructure investments, and applying the modern systems of quality control, technology, management, and anti-corruption.

Written by: dreadlocks,

"pig rearing is not labor intensive. "

Dready, Sweetheart.

When discussing subject you know nothing about ignorance is Bliss....and you are one ecstatic fool.

I bet you have never set foot on a Pig farm.

BTW If it is the price of feed that is causing such distress to the DR's Hog producers how come they just don't talk to the Cattle Ranchers? They seem to be doing just fine even though the cost of their feed in the DR is higher per pound produced than swine.

says Boss Hog


When discussing subject you know nothing about ignorance is Bliss....and you are one ecstatic fool.

ok, anthonyc. pig rearing is labor intensive. especially as it is done in the USA.

anthonyc, always the posuer an low information moron, acts like he knows stuff. well, anthonyc, traditional pig rearing is very labor. however, factory farming, as practiced in the USA, is capital intensive

Family farms are being squeezed out of business by their inability to raise the capital to compete with huge factory farms. Traditional farming is labor intensive, but factory farming is capital intensive. Farmers who do manage to raise the money for animal confinement systems quickly discover that the small savings in labor costs are not enough to cover the increasing costs of facilities, energy, caging, and drugs.

since 90 percent of the pigs reared in the USA today are reared by factory farms, i stand by my statement. i also stand by my contention that you know nothing, and should never have dropped out of school in the 4th grade.

Till recently Korea has protected its farmers. Japan always has. If farmers do not have jobs to go to and are forced out of production by highly subsidized imports from the likes of the US and Europe they end up costing the state and the taxpayer money as unemployment rises. If employment is offered it is one or two dollars a day work in the textile industry etc. This also must be subsidized by the host country - e.g. low rent factories, infrastructure, specialized education, policing and training etc.
The cost to the taxpayer / country can well be greater than supporting the price of pigmeat and encouraging the production of more grains etc. for feed. There is also the problem that when local suppliers have forced local producers out of business external suppliers can raise prices and generate big profits.
This happened in the Phillipines where large areas of rice production were converted
to pineapple. Later of course imported rice prices doubled and tripled.
S.

Back to the pig genocide - import export - if you want to call a duty a trade barrier then certainly subsidized grain growing should count. The US now has the ethanol program to turn on and off to squeeze GM corn prices to where they want them. It is a shame that the vast areas once devoted to cane production can not be put to growing of feed stocks but again cheap imports make that ineffective. What are all the camposinos going to do in the cities, offer their sons and daughter to industry for slave wages while corporate farms spring up in their absence. With out production there is no stable real wealth, huge capital can make and break at will to keep the down trodden where they belong, trod down. Tourism may come and go but food production is a absolute necessity.

End all government subsidies.

ABC, NO, i repeat NO, industrialized country has ever risen from a state of preindustrialization to industrialized status without protecting vulnerable local industries, and subsidizing those industries. NONE. NOT ONE.

What is "infrastructural"?

"As for the huge US and European subsidies to their farmers, that's a huge mistake! When terminated or largely reduced it will bring forth a better world wide system"


dread, are you going to let that go without driving a cat D8 through it?

Competition is always good; of course, all imports need to pay taxes and the excess of the product can be exported. Welcome to globalization!

Competition is always good.... yes it good when it on equal terms.. when both sides are given the same opportunities... ie if Dominican farmers had subsidized corn to feed their pigs.. if they had protections against cheap imports from over producing countries, with these subsidizes... or any help from a government too willing to help large importers of cheap products with a hand at ready under the table to keep it that way.. as Dread stated 90% of US pigs are factory farmed but also that 90% of the meat business in the US is owned by just three companies... everyone else has been forced out if they do not comply and factory farm with drugs and GM corn feed.

Same goes with chickens and beef.. all factory farmed with gm corn and antibiotics.. Educate yourself on where your food really comes from... yes you AC... and if you look with open eyes and open mind I think you may just not want to eat the supper market bought beef, pork or chicken..

stillhere suggests to anthonyc

yes you AC... and if you look with open eyes and open mind I think you may just not want to eat the supper market bought beef, pork or chicken..


well, if he had a mind, it would help.