Cuban Beekeepers in Crisis Due to Government Non-Payment
In 2024, foreign currency sales were estimated at 45 million dollars for over 8,000 tons of honey.
HAVANA TIMES – “Climbing the walls”— this is how Normando, a beekeeper from the municipality of Manicaragua in Villa Clara, describes his situation. The State has not paid him for the honey he delivered in 2024, which was sold on the international market. Likewise, he is still owed from the previous year’s production. Honey is one of the few export products that still generates substantial income, but the producers are in crisis because the government purchasing entity doesn’t pay on time.
“They don’t just owe me for the honey—I also delivered beeswax and royal jelly, but I haven’t yet received the amount in foreign currency I’m owed,” laments the Villa Clara producer. “All the beekeepers in this province are owed that money, and every time we ask about it, they keep giving us the runaround. We’ve been waiting more than half a year, and nothing.”
Over the past decade, Cuba has maintained a steady honey export volume, with its honey considered one of the island’s most highly valued agricultural products on the international market due to its low level of contaminants. However, the sector is now facing a severe crisis involving liquidity, fuel, and supplies, which directly impacts beekeepers.
“They tell us the State doesn’t have foreign currency to deposit into our bank accounts and that we have to wait,” Normando tells 14ymedio. “But my bees don’t wait—I need to buy wood to repair some hives, fuel to get around, and I have to make other investments, not to mention that my family needs to eat, dress, and put shoes on too.”
According to sources in the sector, the State earns about US $4,000 or more per ton of exported honey and pays producers about 20% of that—between 35,000 and 40,000 pesos, plus 600 MLC (a magnetic currency), both highly devalued. Those same sources estimate that in 2024, honey exports exceeded 8,000 tons, and due to rising prices (an average of $5,500 per ton), State revenue reached 45 million dollars.
Cuban honey, labeled “organic” and with low residue levels, is especially popular in Germany and other EU countries, where it obtains significantly higher prices than common honey.
Nonetheless, during the most recent session of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), it became clear that the beekeeping sector had declined during the first half of 2025. The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, acknowledged that exports of tobacco, lobster, and seafood “were not enough to offset the decline in volumes of nickel and other mining products, honey, charcoal, farmed and wild shrimp, and biopharmaceutical products.”
Producers point to the Cuban Beekeeping Company (Apicuba), the state monopoly that controls the sector, as responsible for the constant delays in their payments. Farmers can deliver their honey to the company, but they only get paid—at least in theory—after the entire shipment is exported and sold. In practice, however, several months can pass before they see a dime.
Many beekeepers also complain about the bureaucratic hurdles they must overcome to receive their money. On top of the complicated paperwork, there’s also a shortage of cash in banks, a nationwide problem that’s having a very negative impact in rural areas, where many services, labor, and resources are still paid for directly in paper money.
The situation is the same in Sancti Spíritus province. Beekeepers there report that authorities have failed to meet agreed payment deadlines and that they can’t even access credit to maintain their hives or fix equipment. “Last year was the last time I fell into that trap. This year, I’m stepping away from honey—at least on paper. I’ll keep a few hives to sell directly to private clients and that’s it,” a producer from Sancti Spíritus told 14ymedio.
“We have to buy everything in foreign currency or at extremely high prices because Apicuba doesn’t provide anything. Hives, centrifuges, spatulas, knives, buckets, gloves, veils, frames, wires, lids, bases, wax sheets, and biological controls—all of that has to be paid for in hard currency. But since our payments are delayed, we have to postpone those purchases, and production suffers,” he explains.
Despite the complaints, authorities have not offered a clear public response about the unpaid debts, only acknowledging “delays in the payment chain” during recent meetings of the farm sector. The Ministry of Agriculture has promised to review the contracts, but no public and concrete timeline has been set to settle the debts with producers.
“The last time I asked, they told me they’d pay for 2024 in the second half of this year, but I don’t believe anything they say anymore,” says the producer. “My son, who is also a beekeeper and lives in Najasa, Camagüey, is in the same situation—so this is a national problem.”
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.