Cuba Gov. Manages to Buy a Half Million Eggs from Colombia

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – After starting negotiations last July and after approving the health certifications in December, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) will send the first batch of eggs to Cuba. Two 40-foot containers with 17,280 boxes of 30 units – 518,400 eggs in total – will soon leave for the Island, the Institute assured, although without revealing the exact date.

Juan Fernando Roa Ortiz, general manager of the ICA, described the agreement between Bogotá and Havana as “an important milestone” and assured that “this first export of eggs to Cuba is testimony to the commitment of our producers to health, safety and quality, allowing our products to reach more international markets.”

“We are sure that our high-quality fresh eggs will be well received by consumers on the Island,” said Roa Ortiz.

Since 2023, both Governments have been discussing health frameworks and import requirements so that the Colombian product reaches Cuba as soon as possible. After reaching an agreement at the last Havana International Fair (Fihav), the ICA and the National Center for Animal Health (Cenasa) of the Island gave the green light to export in December.

“Last year we had the opportunity to participate in the largest food fair in Cuba, Fihav, with the help of Procolombia and the ICA; in which not only commercial agreements were consolidated, but sanitary agreements were defined between the ICA and Cenasa, the Cuban health authority, to achieve effective admissibility for eggs in shell,” stressed Gonzalo Moreno, executive president of the Federation of Poultry Farmers. from Colombia.

In his December statement, Roa Ortiz said that he hopes that business with the Island will bring “great benefits to the national economy, the generation of employment and the transformation of the Colombian countryside.” Likewise, he celebrated the approval of the relevant certifications, which require Colombia to keep its data updated with the World Organization for Animal Health, to be a territory free of avian influenza and Newcastle disease – two diseases with a high level of contagion that can damage both the life and production of birds and are transmitted to human beings – in addition to the fact that the breeding farms where the eggs are collected are under official veterinary control.

On this occasion, Moreno also promoted the Colombian product, and said that “two years ago, the Poultry Sustainability Seal was launched, as a result of comprehensive work to promote sustainable practices in the poultry sector. This seal is unique in the world and is a testimony to the commitment of Colombian poultry farming to sustainability.”

In Colombia, an egg has a price of 581 Colombian pesos, which is equivalent to14¢ US or 37 Cuban pesos. Although the value is only a third of the almost 100 pesos that a unit can cost on the Island – between 2,700 and 2,800 for a carton of 30 units – it is likely that the import cost will end up increasing its price in the Cuban market.

According to the ICA, since 1995 egg production in Colombia has gone from 5 billion units to more than 16 billion. Although Havana does not appear as one of Bogotá’s main partners, this country does export large quantities of eggs to other nations in the region.

In 2022, Colombia exported eggs worth $1.25 million to Venezuela, its main buyer. In that same year, Colombia’s total egg export was valued at 1.6 million dollars, but the country imported the same product for 3.81 million dollars, making it a net importer.

Eggs are in high demand by Cubans who, faced with the food crisis and the inability to pay the high prices of meat, turn to this product, which has reached prices that border on the prohibitive in the face of the debacle of the poultry industry. The shipments of ’food combos’ paid for by relatives abroad have been another of the alternatives that families have resorted to in search of eggs, one of the great absentees from the Cuban table.

Translated by Translating Cuba.

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