Santo Domingo. – In 2009 Dominican Republic’s rice farmers posted a record harvest, with around 610,000 short tons, announced Agriculture minister Salvador Jiménez yesterday, during the payment  of RD$100 million to producers and millers within the grain’s nationwide Pledging  program.

“Today we are consuming around 950,000 quintals (47,500 tons) of rice per month. Without the producers’ effort, today the country’s millers and authorities would have to import two or three million quintals per year, which would cause important currency losses,” said Dominican Rice Factories Association (Ada) president Miguel de Moya.

He said thanks to the sector’s stability the country didn’t suffer the food crisis which affected a large part of the world two years ago and skyrocketed rice prices to nearly US$1,300 per ton.

The agribusiness leader said the current time is the most favorable for rice farmers, thanks to the close relations between Agriculture and the other players in the business.

Jimenez said rice harvest climbed 11.3% in the last 12 months and production rose 8.6%, or 5,000,000 short tons more than the previous period, growth he said would continue this year.  “For the fifth consecutive year we’ve been self-sufficient in rice. I congratulate the effort of all the producers.”

In Santo Domingo, rice costs around 20 pesos per pound in supermarkets.