Haiti - Agriculture : Project to plant millions of coconut
Last Thursday, several representatives of agro-food groups from Haiti and the Dominican Republic have met at the Council Agribusiness Dominican (JAD), in order to exchange experiences and analyze a project to plant millions of coconut trees, whose the European Union has funded the study.
Attended the meeting, on the Haitian side Robert Brutus, "Leogan Chatuler Router", Nelson Garcia and Jeffery D. Read and on the Dominican side : César V. Paniagua, Bolívar Toribio Veras, María Gómez, César Espaillat, Martín Familia, Apolinar Germosén, Rafael Ledesma, Frank Valdez, Carlos de la Rosa, Guido Malan, Pedro García and Raymundo Roig.
"There are about 1 million coconut trees in Haiti and we have about 2 million in the Dominican Republic. The objective, however, is to have 8 million plants in total, because companies like Coca Cola have big plans with coconut in the world because they want to start an energy drink that is made with coconut," explained Osmar Benitez, the President of JAD, adding "They want water coconut, cream, milk, oil and wood among other things, as soon as production has increased."
During the meeting, the Haitian entrepreneur, Hubert Dufort stressed the importance of the meeting and recalled that Haiti was a major producer of essential oils that exports to France and could combine the expertise of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to launch a joint project to produce coconut.
