14ymedio, Madrid, 10 June 2024 — The echo of Miguel Díaz-Canel’s scolding this Friday in Majibacoa still resonates throughout the Island: “Here there is enough land to produce for the entire municipality, to give food to all of Las Tunas. Now, you have to work.” A few hours after that diatribe, which has become common in the president’s tours of the Island, the publication of data on chicken imports from the United States once again confirmed the dependence on the outside to feed the Cuban population.
Decentralization towards municipalities is part of the government strategy of recent years to dilute the responsibilities of the leadership of the regime. And Díaz-Canel turned to it again in the municipality of Las Tunas, where he called on the cadres “to work” to get results, while the officials took notes without raising their heads. The president accused the territorial leaders of spending time in offices and meetings and not going to the base.
“We are separated from reality and are not doing what we need to. We have to reach a time when this country is self-sufficient with food. That is what will give us real sovereignty, not being dependent on imports, but you have to believe that, and each municipality must provide its own food and not be thinking about what will come in from the [ration system family] basket. The basket will be for more.”
“You have to believe that, and each municipality must provide its own food and not be thinking about what will come in from the [ration system family] basket”
The expression used by the one person ultimately responsible for the country, understood by thousands of Cubans as a call to take the chestnuts out of the fire by themselves, has not been well received. In reality, Díaz-Canel was shifting his responsibility to an intermediary, while, at the highest level, he continues to negotiate investments and imports, in addition to donations, from countries – partners or not – instead of allocating funds from the national budget for food security on the Island.
“We can’t come and tell you this; it must be you who find the solutions from the knowledge you have of your own reality. The economy must be analyzed from its indicators,” the president said on the same day that the data on chicken imports from the United States for the month of April were known.
This month, the amount of poultry meat acquired from the neighboring country fell sharply compared to the previous month. In April 15,169.6 tons of the product arrived on the Island, 42.6% less than in March, when the sum amounted to 26,413, and half as much as in January, when the total exceeded 30,000 tons.
Accordingly, the value was also reduced, although proportionally less (-38.2%), since it increased the price per kilogram. In the fourth month of the year, 18.17 million dollars were spent, with a cost of 1.20 dollars per kilo (8.1% more than last month, when that same amount was at 1.11 dollars). In March, $29.42 million was paid for chicken meat imported from the United States.
In general terms, the first quarter of this year exceeded the volume of purchases from the U.S. by 2.6%. As of April 2023, the Island had imported 86,277 tons of chicken meat compared to 88,505 this year. Since the statistics do not distinguish between what goes to the State and what goes to private enterprises, the increase in imports could be attributed to the latter.
Since the statistics do not distinguish between what goes to the State and what goes to private enterprises, the increase in imports could be attributed to the latter
The increase in expenditure was 18.6%, due to the increase in the cost of the product, much more substantial than the volume, due to the average increase in weight. Thus, in the first quarter of 2023, 85,666 million dollars were paid by Cuba for the product, compared to 101,531 million in the same period in 2024. Payments, under the laws governing the US embargo, which since 2001 have authorized the sale of food and medical products to the Cuban population, must be made in cash and in advance, conditions that the Government points out as seriously harmful, although the history of non-payments by the Cuban State is one of the reasons for these demands.
Since this exemption was adopted, food products have been sold from the United States to Cuba worth $7,359,331,112, according to data from the Cuba-US Economic and Trade Council (CubaTrade) up to May of this year.
“U.S. chicken meat exports are the most consumed source of animal protein in Cuba and compensate for the acute national agricultural crisis, for which there is no light observed at the end of the tunnel,” said economist Pedro Monreal on Saturday when detailing the latest available figures.
Meanwhile, in Majibacoa, Díaz-Canel continued to take responsibility to the smallest possible scale. “The municipalities are the first that must defend the companies of their territory; otherwise, municipal autonomy does not exist,” he insisted.
“The municipalities are the first that must defend the companies of their territory; otherwise, municipal autonomy does not exist”
Among the president’s companions were Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and the first secretary in the province, Walter Simón Noris. Neither of them understood, judging by their words, why there is no more control and “confronting illegalities” and why the membership of the party does not grow. “We can’t sleep with all the things left unsolved,” said Simón Noris.
No one questioned, at least out loud, whether the poor results of the agricultural sector have anything to do with the fact that the State’s investments in the first quarter of the year were just 559.7 million pesos (2.8% of the total), compared to the more than 6.7 billion pesos destined for tourism.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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