We knew Dominicans were serious about their plátanos, but now we know they don’t play. Amid the recent drought that caused prices of plátanos to skyrocket, there have been plantain-related thefts in the last few days. The organized plátano crime is being committed by both Dominicans and Haitians, who under the guise of night, pillage plátano farms, according to Diario Libre.
And though this might conjure funny images of a group of people stashing bunches of plátanos into their trucks, these thefts are seriously affecting small farms. Larry Reyes, a plátano grower from Esperanza, said that this could bankrupt smaller producers. “We’ve had to contract private security to take care of our plátanos, which has increased the amount of investment we put into production,” he said.
And it probably makes plátanos even more expensive.