Wheat Flour Monetization

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10. Recommendations
Wheat flour monetization is not in the interest of developing the Haitian economy, not in
the interests of the peasants who cultivate products that could replace foreign subsidized
wheat flour, and not in the interests of the importers who, if they were assured that the
U.S. government was not going to import a massive quantity of wheat flour would, in
response to high prices, move to fill the demand.
Moreover, not to interfere with market and production is specified in the FFP guidelines
at multiple points (see endnote). vi
It would behoove World Vision, CRS, and ACDI/Voca to request cash instead of food
and to focus on developing the rural small farmer production strategies that could help
Haitian farmers compete with US subsidized wheat: such as Cassava bread, sweet potato,
yam and corn flours. In this respect the destruction of the flour mill could be seen as an
opportunity rather than a loss.
Having said that, if we must import wheat, there are three avenues of recourse: LMH,
limited bidders, and extended three-tier bidding system. An examination of the logic of
using LMH implies the logic of the other alternatives.
The logic for using Les Moulin d’Haiti (LMH):
1) we have been supporting the LMH wheat flour monopoly for at least the past 12
years, this is hardly the moment to shift strategies
2) our rationale for importing massive quantities of wheat flour at the present moment is
not to aid redistributors, but to drive prices down and increase the availability of
nutritional wheat flour products in the interest of the consumer,
3) no member of the partner NGOs or BdM needs to be overwhelmed with additional
administrative tasks at the moment,
4) LMH has facilities to easily receive, offload, store, and redistribute wheat flour
5) to use a system of five bidders will introduce the likelihood of continued gauging as
it is much more likely that LMH will act responsibly and we can hold them
accountable due to the long standing relationship we have with the company
The logic against using LMH.
1) it is a monopoly that we have inexplicably supported for 12 years in what can be
called a type of corporate welfare
2) the company has no redistribution system of its own but relies on others
3) Haitian distributors and redistributors would enjoy a greater share of the profits from
the monetization
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