Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: The Economy
Inespre's low prices for corn and other distortions in the local
market caused by donated food from foreign sources
decreased incentives for farmers and reduced output during
the late 1970s and early 1980s. The cultivation of sorghum, a
drought-resistant crop also used as a feed, expanded rapidly in
the 1980s because of sorghum's suitability as a rotation crop on
winter vegetable farms and as a new crop on newly idle cane
fields.
Wheat is another increasingly important cereal because
Dominicans are consuming ever-greater quantities of the commodity,
donated primarily by the United States and France.
The government is reluctant to interfere with Dominicans'
preference for the heavily subsidized wheat over local cereals
for fear of violent protests by poorer consumers.
Other major crops include starchy staples such as plantains
and an assortment of tubers. Because of their abundance,
sweet taste, and low cost, Dominicans consume large quantities
of plantains, usually fried. Beans, a dietary staple and the chief
source of protein for many Dominicans, are grown throughout
the countryside.
Dominicans also grow cash crops that include an assortment
of fruits and vegetables. In recent years, farmers, encouraged
by the CEA, have diversified into such new crops as bananas,
tomatoes, flowers, pineapples, and oranges. Citrus production
became a growth industry in the late 1990s when it expanded
its marketing to Europe and North America; its sales had been
limited to the Caribbean market in the early 1990s. Similarly,
banana production for export, which started only in 1990,
totaled more than 104,160 tons in 1994 and shot up to 361,000
tons in 1996. Exports of fresh pineapple amounted to 65,000
tons in 1993, earning approximately US$13 million. The European
Union, which had allotted the Dominican Republic a
quota of 55,000 tons for 1995, almost doubled that amount in
1996.
Livestock
The raising of livestock, the basis of the economy during
colonial times, continued to be a common practice in the
1990s, despite the country's warm climate and hilly interior.
The predominant livestock on the island are beef and dairy cattle,
chickens, and pigs. The country is essentially self-sufficient
in its production of basic meat. Cattle-raising was still the primary
livestock activity in the mid-1990s, and the Dominican
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