HAVANA – Cuban families face the lack of two fundamental products in their diet, sugar and rice. These foods have been in short supply for months in the island’s rationing system.
The situation with the sale of rationed sugar and rice in the country’s warehouses has worsened during this last year. According to statements by Homero Acosta Álvarez, secretary of the National Assembly and the Council of State, in the 2022-2023 harvest only 350,000 tons of sugar will be produced, making it unlikely that the shortage of this product will improve, he details. Cuba Newspaper.
Sugar production on the island has been in decline for a couple of years, and what is produced is not even enough for the national supply.
The figures are added to that of agricultural production, which has decreased by 35% between 2019 and 2023, according to official data published by the state newspaper Granma, the figure could be higher.
Sugar production, once Cuba’s main industry, plummeted from 816,000 tons in the 2020-2021 season to 470,000 in 2021-2022.
Rice production deficit
and most of the rice consumed in Cuba is imported or comes from donations.
“In the current decade, rice production has been very limited due, fundamentally, to the general lack of inputs, as well as spare parts for the combined rice plants,” Linares told the official newspaper Granma a year ago. Morell, director of the Rice Technology Division of the Agricultural Business Group, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture.
The official assured that the Comprehensive Rice Program, a plan of that Ministry to achieve self-sufficiency of grain in the year 2030, would hardly be fulfilled, since of the 200,000 hectares necessary to produce the 600,000 tons of rice that constitute the national demand, In 2023 only 68,000 could be planted.
Eating rice is a luxury
The result is the shortage that Cubans currently find in state warehouses and the prices in private agricultural markets, where a pound of rice sells for almost 200 pesos this year’s end.
The official press, as usual, blames the US embargo, the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, for the low rice production. But in other reports he admits that the problems in increasing rice production in Cuba come from the Planning Task, due to the impact it has had on production costs.
In the midst of the worst economic crisis in three decades, the Cuban regime approved small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) in 2021, which are gaining presence in the sale of imported food and basic products. However, for ordinary Cubans they are expensive due to the devaluation that the peso has registered in the last two years.
There is rice and sugar in private stores, but they are out of the purchasing power of the majority of the people.. For example, Silvia, 73 years old, has a pension of 1,800 pesos per month with which it is practically impossible for her to buy in MSMEs, where a pound of rice costs 250 pesos and sugar 400 pesos. With her retirement she has no choice but to depend on the increasingly dwindling basic basket sold by the State.
Less food on the table
A similar case is that of Daimara, a resident of the Centro Habana municipality. Her family has decided to prioritize the children, making sure they have at least two meals a day. Several months ago adults reduced their daily rations.
Yosvany Pupo Otero, first vice minister of Domestic Trade, said on the state television program Mesa Redonda, on November 18, that the seven pounds of rice regulated per person would be sold, although the sale would be divided into two moments. Pupo assured that the same amount was assured for December and would be delivered without delays.
However, Pupo’s announcement was not fulfilled and the shortage has worsened in recent weeks.
The unloading of a rice ship in Cienfuegos, announced on December 24, could improve state supply by the end of the year, good news for the lowest-income Cubans.
Source: Diario de Cuba and DLA Editorial Team
