Foods produced in Haiti flow to the DR

Due to road blockages and insecurity, producers in Fond Jeannette are forced to sell their products in the DR at disadvantageous prices.

In Fond Jeannette, Bonite, Tête Source and Terre Froide, border towns in the Bois d’Orme section of Anse-à-Pitres, foodstuffs produced by Haitian farmers supply Dominican markets to the detriment of the local market. The glaring lack of infrastructure to transport produce to the Anse-à-Pitres municipal market and the insecurity of National Road number 8 linking the South-East department to Port-au-Prince are at the root of this situation. . Thus, producers are forced to cross the Dominican border to undercut the price of their food at the Pedernales market.

Twice a week, several dozen Haitian merchants and producers from the aforementioned localities frequent the unofficial border crossing point of Manyinn, located 40 km north of Pedernales in the Dominican Republic.

On Sunday and Thursday afternoons, the eve of market days in Dominican towns, accompanied by their husbands and/or children, women unload mules loaded with agricultural products intended for the Pedernales market. Once there, they spend the night in the market, hoping to get the best price the next morning from Dominican customers. But this expectation is uncertain. Dominican buyers know that they cannot bring their products back to Haiti and that they will have to lower their prices at some point during the day.

The Anse-à-Pitres communal market, on the Haitian side, is however just opposite, on the other side of the Pedernales River. It could benefit from such an influx, especially since Haitian customers are demanding the products sold by these women. However, the roads leading to the Haitian city do not, in their current state, allow this transport.