In 2024, sales in foreign currency are estimated to have reached $45 million for more than 8,000 tonnes.
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus, 25 July 2025 — “Climbing the walls” is how Normando, a beekeeper from the municipality of Manicaragua in Villa Clara, describes his situation. The state has not paid him for the honey he delivered in 2024, which was sold on the international market. With the non-payments from previous years, producers estimate the debt at around 20 million in one of the few exportable items that continues to yield juicy dividends.
“Not only do they owe me honey, I delivered wax and royal jelly, but they still haven’t paid me what they owe me in foreign currency” complains the man from Villaclara. “They owe money to all the beekeepers in this province and they keep putting us off every time we ask about it. We’ve been waiting for more than half a year and nothing.”
Over the last decade, Cuba has maintained a steady volume of honey exports, considered one of the island’s most valued agricultural products on the international market due to its low level of contaminants. However, the sector is facing a serious crisis of liquidity, fuel and supplies, which directly affects beekeepers.
“I have to buy wood to repair beehives, fuel to get around, not to mention that my family has to eat.”
I have to buy wood to repair some hives, fuel to get around, and I have to make other investments, not to mention that my family has to eat, clothe themselves, and buy shoes too,” Normando tells 14ymedio. “But my bees won’t wait.”
According to industry sources, the state charges around US$4,000 or more per tonne of honey exported and gives 20% to beekeepers: between 35,000 and 40,000 pesos, plus 600 MLC. The same sources estimate that in 2024 honey exports exceeded 8,000 tonnes and, given the rise in prices (an average of $5,500 per tonne), the state’s revenues reached $45 million.
Cuban honey, categorised as “organic” and with low residue levels, is particularly popular in Germany and other EU countries, where it fetches much higher prices than ordinary honey.
At the most recent session of the ANPP, it became clear that the beekeeping sector had declined in the first half of 2025.
However, at the most recent session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, it became clear that the beekeeping sector had declined in the first half of 2025. The Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquín Alonso, acknowledged that exports of tobacco, lobster and fishery products “were not sufficient to offset the decline in volumes of nickel and other mining products, honey, coal, farmed and wild shrimp, and biopharmaceutical products”.
Producers point to the Cuban Beekeeping Company (Apicuba), the state monopoly that controls the sector, as responsible for the constant delays in their payments. Farmers can deliver their honey to the entity, but only when the entire shipment is sent abroad and sold do they receive their payment, at least in theory, because in reality it can take several months after that date before they are able to collect.
Many beekeepers also complain about the bureaucracy they have to deal with before they get their money. As well as the red tape is the fact that the banks dont have any cash, a problem that affects the entire country and is having a very negative impact on the Cuban countryside, where many services, labour and resources are still paid for directly with paper money.
They cannot even access loans to maintain their hives or repair equipment.
In the province of Sancti Spíritus, the situation is the same. Beekeepers complain that the authorities have failed to meet the agreed payment deadlines and that they cannot even access loans to maintain their hives or repair equipment. “Last year was the last time I fell into that trap. This year, I’m going to get out of the honey business, at least on paper. I’m going to keep a few hives to sell directly to private customers and nothing else,” a Sancti Spíritus producer owned up to this newspaper.
“We have to buy everything in foreign currency or at very high prices because Apicuba doesn’t guarantee anything. Boxes, centrifuges, spatulas, blades, buckets, gloves, veils, frames, wires, lids, bottoms, sheets and biological controllers, all of that has to be paid for in hard currency, but as our payments aren’t coming in we have to postpone those purchases and production suffers,” he explains.
There is still no public, specific timetable for settling debts with producers. Despite complaints, the authorities have not offered a clear public response regarding the non-payments, limiting themselves to acknowledging “delays in the payment chain” during recent meetings with the agricultural sector. The Ministry of Agriculture has promised to review the contracts, but there is still no public, specific timetable for settling debts with producers.
“The last time I asked, they told me that in the second half of this year they were going to pay for 2024, but I don’t believe them anymore,” says the producer. “My son, who is also a beekeeper but lives in Najasa, Camagüey, is in the same situation, so this is a national problem.”
Translated by GH
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