Dominican Republic forces down prices with chicken boycott threat

The Dominican Republic’s consumer protection agency is convinced that the recent jumps in chicken prices is due to criminal speculation, and had threatened with a nation-wide boycott. The issue has been resolved with farmers agreeing to a price cap of RD$94.82 per kg (approx. €1.92 per kg) on chicken.

Consumer Protection Agency (Pro-Consumidor) director Altagracia Paulino announced a call to “day without chicken” to counter the speculative price increase on chicken meat. “I think there’s a criminal speculative factor against Dominican consumers and that has to stop,” she said.
The government warned it would allow the importation of chicken.

“The pound of chicken can be sold for 40, 38 or 42, but not more than 43 pesos (€0.87). We’ll enforce Article 419 of the Penal Code on merchants who sell it for more than 43 pesos, which establishes penalties for speculation,” said Altagracia Paulino.

Supermarkets, which sustain additional costs, are allowed to sell their chicken at 45 pesos.

Agreement
The agreement comes just one day after Paulino threatened to call “a day without chicken” boycott to force vendors, middlemen and farmers to lower its price

The representatives of the Grupo Ramos, Bravo Supermarkets, Mercatodo, National Poultry Commission, the Agriculture Ministry, Centro Cuesta Nacional among other chains attended the meeting.

Source: Dominican Today