Mayor of San Cristóbal city and IICA Representative in Dominican Republic coordinate efforts to improve conditions of marketing and food safety in municipal markets.

Mayor of San Cristóbal city and IICA Representative in Dominican Republic coordinate efforts to improve conditions of marketing and food safety in municipal markets.

Mayor of San Cristóbal city and IICA Representative in Dominican Republic coordinate efforts to improve conditions of marketing and food safety in municipal markets.

At a meeting held on March 2, 2017 between the Mayor of the Municipality of San Cristobal, executives of the Mercados Dominicanos de Abasto Agropecuario (MERCADOM) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) agreed to develop a plan aimed to improve the conditions of the marketing infrastructure and conditions to facilitate the standards of compliance of quality and food safety of the products that are offered in the markets of the municipality of San Cristóbal.

The meeting was led by Mayor Nelson Guillén, accompanied by Mr. José Sena and Luis Dionisio, officials of that mayoralty. For MERCADOM participated Arcadio Tavares Ventura, Operations Director of that entity, and Ronald Núñez. Frank Lam, IICA Representative in Dominican Republic, accompanied by Héctor Garibaldis Pérez and Dileccio Vanderlinder, participated by the technical cooperation entity.

Mayor Nelson Guillén said that they have plans to improve the infrastructure and operating model of the municipal market of San Cristobal which suffer an overpopulation of vendors, who already occupied the market-ridden streets, operating with little organization and without the proper application of the standards required by the good retail market practices.  The mayor’s plan included strengthening the establishment and development of small satellite markets in the main neighborhoods of the city, in a way that would help to ease the overcrowding conditions of the current municipal market, while facilitating better access of the offer to the final consumer.

Among the mayor’s plans was the start-up of the new regional market Don Abelardo Liriano which has a modern infrastructure on the outskirts of the city of San Cristóbal in Canastica, which had recently been built and which had only been put into operation for a short time, remaining inactive today, despite the inadequate conditions already described in the municipal market.

Frank Lam, as well as Arcadio Tavarez Ventura (MERCADOM), expressed their willingness to cooperate with the mayor of San Cristóbal to facilitate the achievement of the objectives announced by the Mayor at the meeting. Frank Lam said that in the coming weeks they would present Mayor Nelson Guillén a strategic plan based on his request.

The activity concluded with a tour of the group to the municipal market and a visit to the new market Don Abelardo Liriano in Canastica. During the visit they were being able to observe the excellent infrastructure conditions of this new market, but observed that it require a process of adaptation and remodeling for its setting in operation.