Neither Shrimp nor Lobster Escape Debacle of Cuba’s Economy
In five years, pork production has dropped by 95%, pasta by 92%, rice by 82.4%, yogurt by 81.2%, coffee by 65.6%, ice cream by 62% and flour by 60%.
HAVANA TIMES – Cuban authorities can celebrate the increase in rice production in 2024. And little else. The data published on Wednesday on the results of the manufacturing industry last year follow the usual path of certifying that, if something goes wrong in Cuba, it can still get much worse.
The case of compound feed is the paradigm of its disastrous impact on the food chain. With a decrease of 47% in just one year and 80% compared to 2019, only 216,700 tons of this product were produced, which in turn explains the collapse of the meat industry and the lack of animal protein for the Cuban population.
The decline in pork production is nothing new, although the situation has not yet bottomed out. In five years, 95% of the volume of banded pork has been lost, from 134,700 tons in 2019 to only 7,200, aggravating the already enormous decline (90%) recorded the previous year, when the production of 13,300 tons, now considered enviable since it is double that obtained in 2024, already seemed a catastrophe. Less brutal, but not negligible, are the decreases in boneless beef (14,400 tons, 3,700 tons less than the previous year) and canned meat (from 78,200 tons to 61,000 tons), which have just finished the sector.
Logically, the decline of cheese and yogurt goes hand in hand with the decline of livestock farming. The path is similar. Compared to 2023, cheese fell by 41% (to 4,400 tons), but in the last five years the drop reaches 83.3%. The same goes for yogurt, which left 26,300 tons produced in 2024, compared to 50,000 in 2023 and 140,400 in 2019, a drop of 81.2%. Thus, nothing has been achieved in these years of alleged struggle for food production, and this does not only concern the raw material, but also the destruction of the industry for reasons ranging from the state of the facilities to the lack of personnel, not to mention the extraordinary energy crisis that prevents even imagining that the situation will recover.
Closing the animal section, the relative recovery of salted butter is striking, which was produced only in 2020 – 100 tons – and has now produced 9,000 tons for two consecutive years. On the other hand, unsalted butter has practically disappeared, from 492,400 tons in 2019 to only 48,100 last year. In five years, 90% of production has been lost.
Fishing is not much better, although it is one of the government’s priority sectors. Shrimp and lobster, protected by their contribution in foreign currency through exports, are also sinking. The first, which left 6,900 tons in 2019, was 1,100 tons last year, 84% less. As for the second, 45% of the production of tails was lost in five years (248,600 tons compared to 136,000) and 9.2% for the whole frozen.
Pasta is another national food product that is gradually being wiped off the map to make way for imported products. No less than 92% of the production has fallen in five years, from 38,200 tons to only 3,000 tons, although in this case it was already foreseen, since in 2023 only 3,200 tons will be produced.
Bread is in the same line, whose case is not so dramatic – from 454,600 to 277,300 tons, 39% less – but its impact is greater because it is an indispensable food in every daily meal and cannot be imported in its non-industrial form. The relationship is evident in the loss of the flour industry, which has also declined by more than 60% in five years. In 2019, 490,300 tons were produced, but last year only 200,600, which shows that the successive shipments of wheat are flying, as confirmed by the decreasing weight of bread.
Coffee is the product that closes the string of misfortunes. With a production of 6,600 tons, much of which is exported, one of the most important products of the island shows tiny figures, with a decrease of 65.6% in five years, with the aggravating factor that more than 35% was lost in just one year, since 10,200 tons were produced in 2023.
There is a brief section for respite. The first, as indicated at the beginning of this note, is rice. It is one of the only products that improved compared to 2023, going from 27,900 tons to 34,400, a symptom that Vietnamese aid is of some use. But the joy is short-lived when viewed in perspective, as 196,100 tons were produced in 2019. This means that in a five-year period 82.4% of a staple food in the Cuban diet has been lost, forced to import and receive Asian donations constantly of a grain that is distributed by the ration book.
The rest of the increases remain for a few other foods, including the unhealthy crackers with salt, which increased from 2,700 tons to 3,300 this 2024, although it was 15,500 in 2019. Also improved were canned tomatoes, the largest industrial recovery of the year, with 13,400 tons, compared to 8,400 in 2023.
Without data for oil and evaporated milk, the list is closed by canned fruit, whose production fell by 25%, from 51,900 tons to 38,900 only last year; and ice cream, which with 8,100 tons barely loses when compared to 2023 -8,600-, but the thing changes when it is observed that in 2019 were produced 21,600 and it is seen that the fall exceeds 62%, which explains that MSMEs in the sector import directly even from Italy.
Although the Cuban government has focused on food production as a priority – a totally unrealistic extreme, given the scarce investment and persistence of the same erratic policies – it has said little about food processing, which is no less important, and even less about how to revitalize the industry.
Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the forecasts are not only bad, but worsening. The projections of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) showed a negative growth for the island of -0.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), but the revision made to reflect the impact of Donald Trump’s tariff measures has lowered expectations for most countries, which are still growing. Cuba, which is not affected by the absence of trade with the United States, loses a tenth in any case and stands at -0.4%, while the rest of the region is growing despite the blow. With the exception of Venezuela (-1.5%) and Haiti (-2%).
Translated by Gustavo Loredo for Translating Cuba.