Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. – The Dominican Export and Investment Center (ProDominicana) and the Dominican Agricultural Business Board (JAD) inaugurated the ninth edition of the Agrofood 2025 fair, the most important event in the food, beverage, and tobacco sector in the country.
The fair will take place from Wednesday, May 28 to Saturday, May 31 at the Dominican Fiesta Hotel & Casino Convention Center in Santo Domingo, bringing together international buyers, Dominican exporters, national productive sector representatives, and public and private institutions linked to trade and agro-industry.
When taking the floor, the Minister of the Presidency, Ignacio Paliza, expressed that strengthening the agricultural sector has been a priority since the beginning of the government. “We have achieved this through concrete actions: we have promoted the National Plan for the Promotion of Exports 2020–2030, promoting financing and technical support programs, and enabled market intelligence tools so that our producers can compete with more information and competitive advantages,” he indicated.
He assured that from the government, public policies will continue to be promoted that generate added value to stimulate innovation and turn the agro-industry into a more competitive export force.
In this context, the Executive Director of ProDominicana, Biviana Riveiro Disla, highlighted that the total exports of merchandise from the Dominican Republic reached a historic record in the first four months of 2025, with a value of US$4,259.7 million, representing a 7.1% interannual growth and a 35.9% increase compared to 2019, a pre-pandemic year.
Regarding the agricultural sector, Riveiro pointed out that in the first quarter of 2025, these exports achieved a record of US$1,115.7 million, with an interannual growth of 11.4%, constituting a historic milestone for this important sector of the national economy. In these four months, agricultural products were exported through 316 tariff lines to 140 international markets.
Similarly, in 2024, Dominican agricultural exports reached a historic milestone, with a record of US$3,273.5 million, representing a 17.7% interannual growth. Among the most outstanding agricultural sectors by their exported value are tobacco and its substitutes, with US$1,340.4 million; cocoa and its preparations, with US$464.3 million; edible fruits, with US$342.3 million; and legumes and vegetables, with a total of US$94.1 million.
The main destinations of these exports were the United States, with a value of US$1,601.9 million; Haiti, with US$273.5 million; the Netherlands, with US$185.5 million; Puerto Rico, with US$165.9 million; and Spain, with US$107.1 million.
The President of the Dominican Agricultural Business Board (JAD), Roberto Serrano, expressed that Agrofood is the main professional fair dedicated to the promotion of Dominican agricultural and agro-industrial exports. He also stated that Agrofood is perhaps the best example of Public-Private Alliances that we can show in the country.
He pointed out that the joint effort of the National Government, led by ProDominicana, and private entities, led by the Agricultural Business Board, have demonstrated to the country, during almost 20 years, that “when we want, we can.”
“With the Agrofood Technical Days, we have learned the rules of the game of international trade, and we have discussed here, the established norms in the countries of our buyers. Additionally, the Gastronomic Festival, has allowed us to know the secrets that make Dominican Cuisine, a mixture of extraordinary flavors that enchant nationals and foreigners,” Serrano said.
credits of the images of this post: Deultimominuto.net
