930 monthly flatbed trucks leave products for Haiti in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican market is receiving a significant presence of mislabeled products or products without sanitary registration, from countries such as India, Turkey, and China, through Haiti, which is affecting national production and industry.

This was revealed by businesswoman and representative of several national brands, Cirse Almánzar, former vice president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic, who indicated that certain products are being relabeled during the transshipment process at the border crossings of the Dominican Republic.

They estimate that around 930 semi-trucks per month carry out this activity, transporting products to supermarkets and businesses throughout the country that lack sanitary registration or the correct labels for commercialization in the country.

He also indicated that the products entering the country in that manner are products with a high tariff burden in the country, so it is also an evasion mechanism, which is estimated to be around US$1 billion, equivalent to RD$60 billion.

The business representative explained that those products come from countries with overproduction and mass food production, which can erode local production in less developed countries.

I explain that this situation is generated by transport or border crossing measures due to insecurity in Haiti, which has been taken advantage of to transship goods in warehouses and depots in the border areas, where trucks deposit large quantities and then enter fractionated in smaller vehicles.

“A culture and a modus vivendi were generated at border points, where warehouses have been developed, where semi-trucks transfer cargo to smaller trucks, and most of those goods have no control,” Almánzar added.

Almánzar’s statements were made during an appearance on the radio program El Zol de la Mañana.