“If this trend continues, there will be no livestock in approximately 15 years.”
14ymedio, Madrid, June 10, 2025 — At the end of 2024, Camagüey had 432,749 head of cattle, after losing more than 66,000 in those twelve months alone. ” If this trend continues, in about 15 years there will be no livestock” in the province, concludes Granma, who wants to make clear that it is based on these data and not on speculation. The official daily publishes this Tuesday the second part of an article aimed at addressing the livestock situation in that territory, formerly at the forefront of the sector.
The first, released on Monday, was dedicated to the collapse of milk production, and, although no figures were provided for the liters delivered to industry, it could be concluded that they were smaller than the 50,000 needed for children, according to the officials themselves. In today’s text, the amount is still unclear but the newspaper asks “how a province of 70 and 80 million liters of milk came to be producing less than half of five years ago.” In 2019, Camagüey reached 91.7 million liters, while in 2023 it was 42. The plan for this year is 44.6 million.
This time, Granma focuses mainly on the loss of livestock, without which, logically, the quantity of milk drops. Last year, there were 58,963 deaths “for various causes” in the province, and 7,143 illegal slaughters of livestock, but also 4,300 deaths so far this year. The blame, according to the authorities of the sector, falls on the farmer.
Last year, there were 58,963 deaths “for various causes” in the province, and 7,143 illegal slaughters of livestock, but also, so far this year, 4,300 deaths have been recorded
“During these last years there has been very bad management of the mass. One of the reasons, to cite an example, is that many producers applied for land for livestock without knowing how to raise it. That is also why there was a rise in the deaths of animals, mainly last year”, says José Antonio Gil Pérez, head of the Livestock Department of the Provincial Delegation of Agriculture.
René Mola Valero, director of Acopio was also interviewed in the first part of the publication, and he agrees, and is in a position to do so because of his “guajiro roots”. He believes that it is easy to comply with the agreement, since fewer animals are always contracted than predicted births, 55% of cows and 30% of heifers. “You already have the necessary conditions to meet the plan. In addition to that, the contracting policy states that the farmer delivers 87% of the milk to the industry”, he asserts.
Gil Pérez insists on the “shortcomings” that are counted so far, among them “producers who did not prepare for the dry period” and others who “made mistakes in the procurement process itself”, which forces a recalculation “to give the farmer who has failed in the first quarter the opportunity to recover in spring”. There is no mention of the reasonable complaints of the producers, who this Monday told Granma that non-payments are the order of the day and that stores with the necessary supplies are empty.
The official gives only a couple of optimistic data, and it is that in March the livestock numbers increased compared to the previous month. However, the numbers still look poor, since the goal for the end of the year is to grow by 55%, and by this date “they should be around 15%”, he notes. However, six of the 13 municipalities in the province are below 10 per cent. Pérez is also pleased that there were more than 1,000 fewer illegal slaughters than in the previous year, although they are already at 1,600.
The disadvantages mentioned by the managers include the lack of nitrogen and transport, both necessary for insemination and which have led to the choice of direct mounting, although the quality of the process suffers. “We are looking for funding to set up a small nitrogen plant at the artificial insemination site and put this important process back into operation,” says Pérez.
If the province’s 533 refrigerators were working well, 384,300 liters could be stored, practically all the milk that can be collected in a day, adds the official, deploring the conditions
The lack of money even affects the refrigeration. Although Camagüey has 177 centers and 44 cold milk delivery points, some 80 refrigerators (15%) are broken, and there are no spare parts to repair them. ” There will always be producers from whom, because of poor conditions or due to distance, it is not economical to collect milk, but those in are the minority”, he says. If the 533 refrigerators of the province were working well, 384,300 liters could be stored, practically all the milk that can be collected in a day, adds the official, deploring the conditions.
Another financial issue is that related to the lack of cash, which hits the sector especially and which, according to Gil Pérez, he is trying to solve by negotiating with the banks, although without results, as seen when talking with the farmers. There is also no hard currency, the incentive used in Nicaragua but not available for the Láctea company.
Danilo Porto Valdes, director of that entity, says they have been punctual with payments in March, without specifying whether the example is random or is just a month in which it was achieved. ” Every day, we pay for 10,305 liters at 70 pesos and lose 31 pesos, because the subsidy only pays 39, which then has to be recovered with other productions; however, deliveries, instead of growing, are decreasing compared to the previous year by 187,200 liters of milk”, he reveals.
The manager complains that the company faces multiple expenses, having to fetch and deliver milk every day with diesel, repairing the trucks they use for delivery and paying their workers, which doesn’t balance with the subsidy paid by the State for the milk. “According to a study carried out by the University, in 2024 we lost 222 million pesos, all without giving up on profits and improving the salary of our workers”, he says. “That is the effort this socialist State-owned company is making to get 25 cents’ worth of milk for each child.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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