Overview

The exodus of Haiti’s rural population to cities, coupled with a lack of agricultural capitalization, has reduced food crops.  In light of this, there is a strong demand for U.S. agribusiness firms to invest and help boost domestic food production.  Haiti does not produce enough food to meet domestic demand and must import a significant portion of the agricultural products it consumes.  Another constraint to food availability is poor internal infrastructure, which is required to transport food, and insecurity.  The free movement of goods, especially agricultural products has become difficult which discourages agricultural producers, and further accelerates inflation.

Major agricultural product imports include rice, poultry, sugar and sweeteners, milled grain, wheat and dairy products.  U.S. exports of rice, processed food, wheat, and pulses are good market prospects.  Haiti’s agricultural product imports were valued at $0.97 billion in (FY) 2021, a nine percent decrease from FY2020 (Source:  Trade Data Monitor (TDM) and other sources).

Major imported agricultural products

• Rice
• Poultry meat
• Sugar and sweeteners.

Rice

Rice is a staple food for most Haitians.  When per capita consumption of rice was lower, Haiti was a self-sufficient producer of rice; however, as consumption has increased, 80 percent of rice now consumed in Haiti is imported.  The United States is especially competitive in long grain milled rice (less than 10 percent broken kernels).  The total amount of rice imported was valued at $279.34 million in FY2022, which represented a 6.4 percent increase from FY2021.  Of total rice imports, $261 million came from the United States.  U.S. exports of milled rice are typically 4 percent broken and packaged in 50 kg,25 kg bags and 12.5 kg bags.

Poultry, Meat and Edible Meat Offal

The United States is Haiti’s leading supplier of poultry.  Over the past several years, decreases in the availability of local livestock and increasing feed prices that forced Haitian farms out of business have also factored into the rising demand for poultry imports.

Following the detection of the H5N2 avian flu virus in the Dominican Republic in 2008, the government of Haiti instituted a ban on Dominican poultry and egg products.  In June 2013, the Minister of Commerce and Industry declared that the government of Haiti had lifted the ban on Dominican poultry meats, but Dominican poultry exporters have to fulfill the requirements of the Haitian government before exporting to Haiti and must obtain an import permit.

Haiti imported $157.4 million worth of meat and edible meat offal during FY2022, a 11 percent increase in comparison to FY2021.