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The Food Crisis in Cuba: A Legacy of Socialism

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Introduction

Cuba, an island blessed with fertile land and a favourable climate for agriculture, is today facing a paradoxical food crisis. Despite its agricultural potential and vast maritime resources, the Cuban population suffers from chronic shortages of basic foodstuffs. This article examines how the socialist government's policies have led to this situation, comparing agricultural production before and after the 1959 revolution.

One might ask: In Cuba there is no sugar and no salt! Is it because of the toti=blockade? as the Cuban communists and their acolytes justify it, or is it because of the inefficiency and incapacity of the failed socialist system they represent?

The following is a brief analysis by the author based on statistical data, including Castro's own sources such as the Cuban National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI).

The Decline of the Sugar Industry

The Fall of a Giant

The sugar industry, once the mainstay of the Cuban economy, is a dramatic illustration of the country's agricultural decline:

• In the 1980s: Regular production of more than 7 million tons of sugar
• In 2023: Production of only 350,000 tonnes, the lowest in more than a century.
• Historical comparison: In 1894, with rudimentary technology, 1,054,214 tonnes were produced.

[Source: National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI) of Cuba]

Agricultural Production: Before and After the Revolution

Pre-Revolutionary Cuba: A Tropical Granary

Before 1959, Cuba was known as the ‘breadbasket of the Caribbean’:

Cuba's agricultural production was the ‘granary of the Caribbean.

• Rice production (1958): 262,000 tons
.
• Beans production (1958): 37,000 tons
.
• Potato production (1958): 134,000 tons

[Source: ‘Cuba: A New History’ by Richard Gott, 2004]

Cuba was self-sufficient in several products and a net exporter of food.

Post-Revolutionary Cuba: Decline and Dependence

After the revolution, agricultural production declined significantly:

• Rice production (2020): 180,000 tons (31% less than in 1958)
• Beans production (2020): 19,000 tons (49% less than in 1958)
• Potato production (2020): 71,000 tonnes (47% less than in 1958)

[Source: Anuario Estadístico de Cuba 2020, Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI)] 

 

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Cuba became a net food importer, relying on imports to cover up to 80% of its food needs.

Cuba imports 80% of the food it consumes, according to the United Nations.

[Source: FAO Cuba Report, 2019]

Causes of Agricultural Decline

1. Collectivisation Policies

The nationalization of land and the creation of state farms reduced incentives for production.

With the agrarian reforms implemented in 1959 and 1963, agriculture in Cuba changed dramatically. There was a shift from a large number of landowners to a state-controlled system, which has affected food production in the country.

The slogan ‘The land for those who work it’ has never been fulfilled, nor have they succeeded in creating the much-vaunted Leninist-style cooperative movement, lacking in freedom and independence, where everything is centrally managed by the Castro state.

2. Centralised Planning

The system of state stockpiling and the prices set by the government discouraged production and encouraged the black market.

3. Lack of Investment and Technology

The shortage of modern agricultural inputs and machinery has limited productivity, which is why they blame the ‘totí=blockade’. However, before 1959 and with the difficulties of the peasantry of the time, Cuba was self-sufficient in food from agriculture and fisheries and was able to export many of its products.

4. Rural Exodus

The government policies of the socialist dictatorship destroyed the labor tradition of the Cuban peasantry, provoking a massive exodus from the countryside to the city and a large majority emigrated to other countries due to the lack of freedoms, food, and medicine, considerably reducing the agricultural labor force.

The Fisheries Sector: An Untapped Potential

Despite being surrounded by the sea, Cuba's fishery production has declined:

• 1986: Catch of 244,000 tonnes of fish (When the USSR still subsidized Cuba)
• 2020: Catch of only 51,000 tonnes

[Source: Anuario Estadístico de Cuba 2020, Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI)]

Fish Consumption

In 1958 the consumption of fresh fish Cuba ranked first in America with 5.6 pounds, followed by the United States with 5.4.

Total per capita fish consumption equivalent to just 18% (8.3 pounds per year) of the world's average per capita consumption of 45.2 pounds (in 2021) according to FAO.

Cuba's per capita consumption reduction  dropped from 16 kg to about 3. 8 kg per year. [Source: Publication of the Cuban officialist website Cubadebate.cu]

Historical Comparison: From the Colonial Slave to the Contemporary Cuban

Ironically, some historians suggest that the diet of the Cuban slave in the colonial era was more varied and nutritious than that of the average Cuban today, including:

• Beef and pork
• Fish
• Bananas and tubers
• Rice and beans

In contrast, the current diet of the average Cuban is deficient in protein and variety, with frequent shortages of basic commodities.

According to the late historian Manuel Moreno Fraginals:

"In the ingenio Las Coloradas, owned by the Valle Iznaga family, with 260 slaves, the average was 2.5 cattle slaughtered weekly, providing a daily diet of about 220 grams of fresh meat per slave. 

From the accounting books of numerous sugar mills, in which they sometimes recorded daily the consumption of the main food items of the endowments, we know that the daily consumption of a slave was more than 200 grams (half a pound is 230 g) of meat or salted fish.

[Source: Download book El Ingenio ► de Manuel Moreno Fraginals.]

 Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz recognized at the event celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the Urban, Suburban, and Family Agriculture Programme:

"Of the goal of five kilograms per capita of animal protein monthly, in 2019 “we only reached 200 grams.”, Manuel Marrero, 16 February 2020.

Unintentionally demonstrated that ‘Cubans today are worse fed than slaves in the 19th century’

Consumption of Beef and other Items

Cuba before 1959 had 0.86 head of cattle per capita, eighth place in Latin America. In meat production (beef, pork, and sheep) in pounds per capita, it had the third place in Latin America with 95 pounds, surpassed only by Argentina with 304 and Uruguay with 245.

How the Cuban government's policies have impacted the livestock industry

The golden years of Cuban livestock
In 1958 there were around 6 million head of cattle in Cuba, making meat and milk production the second most important economic activity in the country. Cubans were at that time the third largest meat consumer in Latin America.

The Impact of Castro's Regime

When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he made drastic changes to the livestock industry that led to its downfall. His experiments and repressive laws led to the collapse of the once-thriving industry. Soon, milk, dairy products, and beef, which are essential components of human nutrition, disappeared from the Cuban diet in the early 1960s.

Government Control and Criminalisation

The Castro regime took control of the meat market, making it illegal for private individuals to sell beef. The government sets prices in foreign currency, making them unaffordable for the general population.

The Decline of Cuban Cattle Farming

Despite the Cuban dictatorship's efforts to present a successful livestock industry, the reality is that over the past six decades, Cubans have had to change their eating habits. Beef has completely disappeared from their tables. Even pork, once a substitute, is now scarce and expensive due to the government's restrictive measures.

The Cuban's Casseroles Remain Empty

Starting with the late Fidel, through Raúl to the hand-picked Díaz-Canel have only filled the empty pots of the ordinary Cuban with promises, slogans and hashtags.

The delusional promises of the late Fidel and Raúl to the hand-picked Díaz-Canel have only filled the empty pots of the ordinary Cuban with promises, slogans and hashtags.

The Delusional Promises of the Deceased Commander

I am sure that in the course of a few years, we will raise the standard of living of Cubans higher than that of the United States and Russia. Fidel Castro, 16 February 1959.

In the livestock development plans, we plan to reach figures of around 30 million liters of milk per day, in a 10-year program. Do you know what that will mean? Almost four liters of milk per capita, almost four liters of milk per capita! It will be a source of unlimited protein for our country, in the form of milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, and butter, in all forms. We will have a production that will allow us to consider ourselves one of the best-fed people in the world. Livestock means meat, it means milk. Fidel Castro, 7 June 1965.

In 1970 ... there will be so much milk that we will be able to fill the bay of Havana with milk. Fidel Castro, 23 August 1966.

Raúl Castro the Little Glass of Milk and Continuity

We have been saying for 50 years that the 7 years must be erased from our minds, we have been saying that until the age of 7, we must erase that. We have to produce milk for everyone who wants to drink a glass of milk and there is land to produce it. Raúl Castro, 26 July 2007.

First, we said that beans were as important as cannons, and when the situation worsened, we went so far as to say that beans were more important than cannons.... We will produce food, we will preserve the main conquests of the Revolution and we will continue to advance without neglecting defense for a minute. Raúl Castro, 11 July 2008.

Since Raúl took power on 31 July 2006, he has tried to revitalise agricultural production by trying to curb popular discontent and add other slogans to the empty pots,

but he has had the same failures as his late brother.

We Are Continuity Has Told Only One Truth in His Mandate

In order not to burden you with the collection of hashtags and hollow phrases of the ‘Puesto a Dedo’ Díaz-Canel better known as the ‘Sing*o’ we will reproduce the only truth he has said that sums up the sad reality of the failed Castro-communist regime:

‘We have a law on food sovereignty and there is no food, we are going to pass a law to promote livestock and we have no livestock and we have a law on fishing (...) and there is no fish’, sermonised President Miguel Díaz-Canel in December before parliament.

Conclusion

The Cuban socialist government's inability to guarantee food security for its population is the result of decades of failed economic policies. Despite favorable natural conditions, Cuba faces a food crisis that reflects the structural deficiencies of its economic and political system.