4.3.5.1 Marketing to date

In the Dominican Republic it is common practice to apply synthetic insecticides. All pesticides are imported since no pesticides are manufactured in the country, except for neem pesticides.

The Secretaria de Estado de Agriculura (SEA), Departemento de Sanidad Vegetal Division de Registro de Plaguicidas is in charge of supervising the import of insecticides.

In 1998 957,729 l/kg of insecticides of US$ 6,810,527.51 value were imported to Dom Republic

In principle all agricultural inputs imported to the Dominican Republic are free of tax, to enhance agricultural production. This also applies to pesticides. However, traders usually have 80 - 100% mark-up on the wholesale price and thus increase the price of agricultural inputs considerably.

IPM systems have been introduced to overcome the problems caused by indiscriminate use of broad spectrum pesticides, but are not available for all crops and are not applied countrywide.

The obvious main pest the farmers encounter is the whitefly Bemisia tabaci which is resistant to all broad-spectrum insecticides. This problem has led to a special governmental directive, Resolution 37/99 Manejo on "Control y Prevencion de la Mosca Blanca", which regulates the cultivation areas and times for tomatoes.

FAMA's neem-based pesticides are most effective against the following groups of pests:

· larvae of Lepidoptera
· aphids
· whitefly (B. tabaci)

Their neem-based pesticides compete with the pesticides shown below:

Table 48: Price, target pests and crops of products competing with neem pesticides in the Dominican Republic

The above list indicates that neem products are some of the most expensive pesticides. An exception is the product "Pegasus" which is a selective pesticide against whiteflies and which is more expensive than neem.

Formulated neem oil is cheaper than ground neem seeds and easier to apply. However, these types of pesticides cannot be compared directly because to a certain extent they affecting different pest species.

While synthetic insecticides can be applied on all sorts of crops, neem products are currently only used in high-priced niche markets such as vegetables, fruit and flowers. Neem is not applied on staple crops such as corn and legumes. It is only competitive within some IPM concepts and where no synthetic insecticides are allowed (organic farming).

Farmers applying neem in the Dominican Republic are cropping according to IPM or organic farming principles, often assisted by projects.

To date the small-scale industrial production of neem products in the Dominican Republic is producing a considerable amount for export.

Trading chain

In the Dominican Republic pesticides, especially insecticides are distributed from importers to retailers. The addresses of retailers have to be registered in a special data base. Neem products are usually not sold via the normal agricultural supply trading system. One exception is the wholesaler LIGA.

The present market share of neem products can only be estimated: in 1998 FAMA produced 4 200 tonnes of formulated neem oil, of which 56% has been exported and 44% sold on the national market. Additionally most of the ground neem seeds and cake has been exported. Given that the total value of imported insecticides was 6.5 million dollars, neem pesticides have a market share of about 0.25%.