Log in to your IBTimes Account

close
ID
Password
  • Set your IBTimes.com Edition

Dominican Republic ups food subsidies



By AP
10 May 2008 @ 09:48 pm ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The Dominican Republic has expanded subsidies on basic food staples to maintain calm after deadly food riots recently struck neighboring Haiti.

Related Topic

Get stories by e-mail on this topic.

E-mail:

Trucks loaded with milk, chicken, eggs and other food staples have been rumbling across the Caribbean nation, where almost half of 9.5 million residents live in poverty.

The subsidized food is on average 30 percent below supermarket prices. The government recently expanded the effort by selling a US$3 (euro2) package that includes a frozen chicken and 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) each of potatoes and onions. An estimated 20,000 of the packets are being sold daily, according to a Saturday news release.

Food riots in Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, killed seven people in April and cost the prime minister his job.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez implemented the subsidies as he seeks re-election this month.

The food packages are a welcome reprieve to 34-year-old handyman Vidal Rosario, who said people in his working-class neighborhood in northern Santo Domingo have been rationing their food.

"It makes life easier on poor people," he said of the deliveries by government trucks at a basketball court near his house.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Click!
  • Rate this article:

Comments

Post Your Comment

*Name


advertisement
More Politics & Policy
Anti-G8 demonstrators clashed briefly with Italian police on Saturday in the first big protest ahead of next week's summit of the world's richest nations...
Search crews have located a large piece of debris from a Yemeni jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros islands last week and are working ...
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon rebuked Myanmar's generals on Saturday for denying him a visit to see detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and said she sho...

Advertisement
Press Release Distribution - IBwire

Effective and Affordable Press Release Distribution Service

advertisement
 
IBTimes.com Web
Partners
International Business Times© 2009 The Ibtimes Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms of service | Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us | Contact Us | Archives