Agricultural Data Reflect an Unprecedented Food Crisis in Cuba

Pork tops the list with a 93.2% drop; even lobster and honey are seeing substantial losses

Bananas, one of the fruits most commonly eaten on the island, are among the most affected crops. / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Madrid, 22 January 2025 — The agricultural data from the 2023 yearbook, published this Tuesday with a one-year delay, reflect a dramatic situation whose real scope will only be known when the Cuban authorities dare to release the numbers for 2024. For the moment, the indicators for the vast majority of products confirm that the Island is going through an unstoppable food crisis.

This is demonstrated, fundamentally, by the abrupt fall in the pig population, which in just one year went from 2,677,000 pigs in 2019 to just 116,500. In October 2023, the Minister of Agriculture had already revealed a sharp decline (92%) in the tonnes of pig meat produced on the Island, and estimated the reproductive mass at 35,892 head in 2022, compared to 96,200 in 2018, a loss of 60,308 animals. The current figure in the yearbook is surprising because of its abruptness. According to the table, in 2020 there were 1,120,700 pigs. In 2021, 1,075,500 and in 2022, 1,456,200, meaning that in just one year, according to official statistics, 93.2% of the pig population was lost.

Among the most anticipated data was that of the harvest, but once again we will have to remain in the dark. The document does not include data from the State’s sugar group Azcuba’s for the 2022-2023 harvest, much less those for the last completed harvest, 2023-2024. The most recent data provided by the official press was the 1.2 million metric tonnes of 2021 and, since then, the numbers had to be calculated using the available references. Today we know that the 2021-2022 period closed with only 700,000 tons and, after that, another void is entered.

The document does not include Azcuba’s data for the 2022-2023 harvest, much less those for the last completed harvest, 2023-2024.

The results in sugar are not particularly striking, given the complete ruin that the once star industry of the island has become, although it is dizzying to see the data year after year, which show a pitiful evolution from the almost eight million tonne produced in 1990 – of which 6.5 corresponded to the state sector and 1.5 to the private sector – to the paltry amount at the top of the list and revealing an almost total abandonment of production by the State: 10,000 tonnes compared to 690,000 from the private sector.

It is no secret, and it is once again made clear in the 2023 yearbook, that the privileged socialist state enterprise, classified by the Government as the principal engine of the economy, is highly inefficient when it comes to food. This is again made clear in the comparative table offered in the agricultural yearbook. The private sector is responsible for 92% of fruits, 87% of citrus fruits, 83% of beans, 82% of bananas and root vegetables, 81% of tubers and 67% of rice, the latter being only main production in which the State sticks its head up and, even so, it remains at 32%.

All this, taking into account that land ownership remains predominantly in the hands of the State, which has three times as much agricultural land, although these figures are very outdated, as they correspond to 2017. Of landholders 68% are tenants, compared to 24% owners and 8% “dispersed” campesinos. Tenants account for only 0.3%, a very low figure considering the amount of idle land owned by the State, most of it in Camagüey, which also has a huge amount of uncultivated land (not in vain is it the largest of the Cuban provinces).

By crop, all experienced declines in the last five years, the most noticeable being bananas, from 1,036,176 tonnes to 438,125; and cereals, from 702,147 to 208,685. Among them, rice stands out, one of the basic products in the daily diet of Cubans, which fell from 426,228 tonnes to just 58,766.

Pedro Monreal: The agricultural chapter of the 2023 Cuban Statistical Yearbook was published today and confirms that there is a “major crisis” of food security in Cuba. Data for 2024 are not available, but in October it was reported – without details – that the situation was worsening even further.

Other products also stand out, such as fruit in general (from 283,950 tonnes in 2019 to 86,605 in 2023) and onions (from 71,557 to 13,686), malanga (167,202 to 89,445) and grapefruit (22,987 to 1,840), to name just a few examples. In addition, it is striking that even the most pampered agricultural product, to which some resources are specifically allocated, such as fuel, does not cushion the falls either: tobacco decreased from 28,584 tonnes to less than half that, 12,248 in five years.

Not a single agricultural product has improved its comparative data in recent years, and livestock has fared even worse, as already mentioned. But the same fate has befallen other products of animal origin, such as milk, one of the most promised to the Cuban population since the beginning of the Revolution. Production fell from 512,000 tonnes in 2019 to 230,800 in 2023, which is not surprising if one takes into account that the cattle herd went from 312,900 head to 217,000, and less well fed, as seen in the performance graph, where it can be seen that it fell from 1,636 kilos per year per milking cow to 1,064.

The same is true for cattle for delivery, which fell from 475,000 to 299,700 and, as has already been mentioned on previous occasions, for poultry, which fell sharply from 35,356 to just 5,589. In detail, there are also reductions of almost 50% in both laying hens and replacements as well as in breeders, a catastrophe that leaves its mark on eggs, of course. Total production fell from 196,020,000 to 94,410,000.

Economist Pedro Monreal certified that Cuba is facing a “major food security crisis” and noted that the reality is even worse

The number of fish in the country has sunk for another year, leaving very poor figures for a country with a fishing fleet in tatters. The total has gone from 45,654 tonnes to 26,239 in five years, and only one product is holding up, snapper, and one is growing slightly, grouper, from just 27 to 32 tonnes. These are ridiculous amounts, but they are almost the only section of the 36-page report showing growth, along with the also modest growth of carp. The most prized products of the sea did not fare any better, and lobster went from 3,278 tonnes to 2,625, while shrimp fell from 672 to 426 and, in its broadest sense, shrimp farming plummeted from 6,656 tonnes to just 931 last year.

Finally, another of the exportable items that is most closely watched by the authorities has another interesting fact. The number of beehives has grown in the last five years, from 204,900 to 231,400. However, both honey (9.9 tonnes to 6.7) and total wax (148.2 to 114) have fallen visibly.

With these figures, economist Pedro Monreal certified that Cuba is facing a “major food security crisis” and noted that the reality is even worse, since the authorities declared in October 2024 that the worsening that year was even greater than in previous years.

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