Cuba’s Milk Crisis and Purchases from the USA and others
The Government says it will import 1,750 tons from several countries, in addition to donations from the United Nations.
HAVANA TIMES – It has been two days since the Spanish agency EFE released the news that Cuba had asked, for the first time in history, for help from the United Nations World Food Program in the face of the milk shortage, but the Government still does not say a single word publicly. This Thursday, the Minister of the Food Industry, Alberto Lopez Diaz, gave a press conference to reassure the population that children up to seven years old are guaranteed powdered milk in the coming days, although the explanations were confusing.
The arrival of a Brazilian ship with 375 metric tons of the product “guarantees the distribution” for that group for an unspecified number of days. The minister also cited several contracts that add up, if the figures are correct, to 1,750 tons of powdered milk. He added that, since the country consumes 2,000 tons per month for children, medical diets, pregnant women and “social consumption,” these imports “guarantee stability in the distribution for March and April.”
The figures weren’t released immediately, but it was striking to begin with that, among the imported products, are 500 tons coming from the United States, “by virtue of the exceptions established by that Government to sell certain products to the Island, through immediate payment and in cash.” Although the authorities have recognized that they are allowed to buy certain products from the US, they denounce at the same time that the conditions are anomalous in international trade, they rarely refer to a specific acquisition through the exemptions from the embargo, in force since 2001.
The other contracts cited by the minister and disclosed by the official press consist of another 500 tons from Brazil, 245 tons from Canada and 600 tons from “other suppliers.”
Lopez Díaz said that the problem is being progressively solved thanks to the “interest of the country’s top management in such a sensitive issue,” and stressed that powdered milk is marketed at high prices on the international market. Residents of Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey were more fortunate, he said, since these territories have fresh milk available.
The shortage of milk became more pressing last year, when almost all the provinces had to adjust their quotas, reduce the number of prioritized groups, or replace the milk with products that were sometimes only remotely similar. The farmers complained about the “ordering task reforms*”of January 2021 and the high inflation, which has devastated what was left of the Cuban economy.
Most say that the State does not compensate them or even cover the expenses generated by raising livestock, and they are paid little, late and poorly. Added to this are the consequences of non-compliance with the contracts for reasons beyond their control. The Government can impose fines and sanctions if the agreed-upon quota is not delivered, which is sometimes impossible due to the malnutrition of livestock from the lack of feed and the shortage of fuel for transport. There is also the general economic insecurity, which has caused an increase in the theft of animals.
“If you paid the farmers more and on time, you would see better results, but hey, they work and aren’t paid, and you can see the results today,” a user on social networks responded to the ministry’s note.
In mid-February, complaints from the population about problems with milk powder reached Cuban television. The Minister of Internal Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, explained that most of the product is acquired in “distant markets, which makes the price more expensive, and the delivery delayed.” The current distribution of this product to children up to seven years old comes from the country’s reserves, “the valuable contributions of the World Food Program (WFP) with donations, and loans from economic actors (private companies).”
The minister made a reference that at that time went unnoticed, since the WFP’s collaboration with Cuba – as with all poor countries with food needs – is historic. However, what had never happened and what the Government continues to avoid talking about is the request for urgent help.
“We confirm that the WFP has received an official communication from the (Cuban) Government requesting support to continue the monthly delivery of one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of milk for children under the age of seven throughout the country,” the delegation on the Island told EFE, which had access to the information through its sources.
The agency added that “it is the first time that Cuba has requested support by issuing an official communication at the highest level of WFP management” and did so, according to the agency, by sending a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment to the executive management of the WFP in Rome at the end of last year. Thanks to that, “144 tons of skimmed milk powder were sent, benefiting almost 48,000 children between seven months and three years old in Pinar del Río and Havana,” 6% of the minors that the Government wants to reach.
This Thursday, BBC World tried to obtain a statement from the Cuban Government, which so far will not discuss the issue.
In his press conference this Thursday, Minister Alberto López Díaz also mentioned the situation of the daily rationed bread rolls, which are scarce if not absent “in the face of the unavailability of flour,” although, “according to the productions of each territory, the local authorities have been making determinations.”
Flour is abundant in Cuba, as 14ymedio reported yesterday, thanks to imports from private companies, some of which are linked to the State itself. With milk, the situation is the same. The private and informal wholesalers dominate the social networks, but to obtain the products you have to be able to pay for them at a high price, exposing the increasingly visible gap between the social classes that the Revolution supposedly abolished. Between those with family members abroad sending money or making online purchases and those with only a Cuban salary or pension.
*Translator’s note: The Ordering Task that came into effect in 2021 eliminated the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), leaving the Cuban peso (CUP) as the only national currency. It raised the prices of basic goods and services, generating inflation, and created stores that take payment only in hard currency, which must be in the form of specially issued pre-paid debit cards. Other measures targeted different elements of the economy.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba
How can a government that can’t even manage food, energy or housing stay in power for so long? The beggar bureaucracy stays well fed, drives foreign sports cars and live in mansions. Via the revolution? No. Revolution now!
What an absolute disgrace !!
Reply to Stephen western countries and china are tired of helping Cuba milk producers in Canada are paid 50 cents a liter for in quota production
It one the higher cost places to produce mily. Canada will want something in return is Cuba going to send products or people to work in health care of developing the mines in the north and the building of a new railway. I do not think so. Cuba is running out of options as many other countries have people that do not have enough to eat and Canada has a housing crisis and 4 million in Canada that also could use that same milk powder.
“Pay producers 25 cents U S per liter . . .” Stephen, and where exactly is the financially strapped Cuban government going to obtain more money to pay farmers to whom the communist state has absolutely no respect? You cannot draw water from a stone.
How are poor Cuban farmers suppose to “ . . . bring in feed and minerals duty free from anywhere in the world”? The cash strapped subsistent farmers hardly have enough money to live let alone make major financial investments to improve productivity on the farm.
This is a perfect example of ethnocentric thinking. Use Western ideological thinking in agricultural operations, plus the subsidies and financial aid provided by sympathetic Western governments to Western farmers then overlap that thinking to communist ideological farming practices. It just doesn’t work.
Furthermore, did you factor in the fuel crisis in Cuba today in your analysis? You state: “. . . have fuel for transport of milk . . .“ Easier said than done. It certainly is not the farmers fault if the Cuban government cannot supply their country with sufficient fuel at a reasonable price for transport of milk, or any agricultural product, to market.
To improve Cuban farmers productivity “ . . . by at least 400 percent” in 5 years, as you state, is by immediately introducing market driven agricultural reforms. That is, giving farmers a stake, a say, in farming operations, plus financial incentives/ rewards for achieving and surpassing quotas and for the government to provide subsidies and interest free loans to improve agricultural productivity.
Of course none of that will be done because in a totalitarian state like Cuba the government is in “total” control and it be hooves the state to relinquish that absolute control. Consequently, the end result is what you see. Western countries seeing the misery the general Cuban population must endure provides much needed and appreciated handouts much to the chagrin and embarrassment of the ruling ideologues.
Pay producers 25 cents U S per liter allow them to bring in feed and minerals duty free from anywhere in the world have fuel for transport of milk and allow imports of crop inputs and pay on time net 20 days and it would be possible in 5 years to increase production by at least 400 , percent
A welfare state now, Cuba cries out for help but cannot ever say who is to blame! Bandaid solutions are not the solution.
But who will control the handouts?
Feed a man a fish and feed him for a day: show a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime!
Massive mismanagement by the ruling party over many years and now using children as a screen now after years of terrible management: how many handouts will be needed? Perhaps sell some of the mansions the government owns?
A modern Beggar’s Banquet that economically supports more continued tyranny!
Canadians should have some conditions in place to put some pressure for permanent change to see Cuba put self-supportive measures put in place not just charity and handouts. Fat chance and the worst is just to come!