HARRISONBURG, United States. — In order to stimulate producers, a little over a year ago the dictatorship increased the purchase price of coffee. With this he intended to achieve an increase in production and prevent the illegal marketing of the grain, but the effects were not long in coming in the processing companies.
Recently, an increase in the retail price of blended coffee was also announced. This has always happened in Cuba, since the prices of products are capriciously set within an obtuse economic structure where supply and demand do not play their role, and when they seem to do so, the State immediately intervenes.
Far from analyzing the real causes that cause the repeated decrease in Cuban agricultural production —including coffee—, the communists continue to adopt measures that end up becoming a boomerang against the people and their own companies. It is a method that, despite its proven inefficiency, continues to be used regardless of the economic consequences, because, ultimately, ours is a subsistence economy and whoever dares to protest extreme poverty, abusive prices or shortages , you will be assured of a long stay in one of the numerous prisons of the Caribbean gulag.
Looking for information in the official press
Cubadebate —the grotto of the Taliban of Castroism— has published a Article which, despite the hopeful winks of the journalists, shows the magnitude of the problem. It is “Another formula to sweeten the bitter taste of coffee”, published last August 24 under the authorship of Joel Mayor Lorán and Otoniel Márquez, in which the consequences that the increase in the purchase price of coffee to consumers can be seen. producers provoked in the collection companies “Eladio Machín”, of Cienfuegos; “Asdrúbal López”, from Guantánamo, and “Luis Bocourt”, from Artemisa.
The statement offered by Carlos Espinosa Piedra, director of the Artemisa processing plant, is quite eloquent: “In order to collect all the grain, the State raised the purchase price to producers without taking into account the coffee value chain, which requires a treatment process. So in 2021 we bought a ton of Arabica coffee at 149,000 pesos and sold it at 71,939; the Robusta to more than 83,000 and we received 46,200 for its sale. Due to the notable difference in prices in the purchase and sale, last year’s losses amounted to more than nine million pesos.
What is significantly paradoxical —which the journalists describe as “curious”— is that if the companies increase their purchases of grain and the production of the product, the losses will also increase. In the Cienfuegos company there were also disadvantages, although minor. The biggest economic disaster occurred in the Guantanamo company, where losses amounted to 186,297,000 pesos.
Due to this situation, the Ministry of Finance and Prices approved the Agroforestry Group (GAF) of the Ministry of Agriculture, a subsidy amounting to 419 million pesos, according to Elexis Legrá Calderín, director of Coffee, Cocoa and Coconut of the GAF. The official also specified that, despite the subsidy, the processing companies would continue to have losses, which will continue to harm the workers, since they will not be able to have salary increases, differentiated payments or distribution of profits.
Another consequence of the measure has been that processing companies have been forced to diversify their production to mitigate losses, and have assigned part of their labor force to coffee harvesting, charcoal production, palm kernel topping and even the collection and sale of yaguas.
The truth is that since Raúl Castro referred, more than six years ago, to the fact that we taught the Vietnamese how to grow coffee and now they come to Cuba to advise, the national production of coffee has only decreased, as is the case with sugar, tobacco and livestock. Obviously, that affects the people.
Other blows against Liborio
After having sold pure coffee in the warehouses for a few months, Raúl Castro himself took it upon himself to inform us that we would drink blended coffee again as a result of the decline in coffee production, and that is what happened. Happiness in a poor man’s house is short-lived, says a well-known saying.
Despite being a national product, coffee from the Serrano, Cubita, Turquino, Arriero and Regil brands is sold at exorbitant prices in foreign exchange stores. On one occasion, during a visit to a Guantanamo store, I found that it was cheaper to buy an imported coffee than one of national production. And for the record, the imported coffee was excellent.
Now, the Ministry of Domestic Trade has reported that as of November 1, the price of the “Hola” brand blended coffee —supposedly 50% pea and 50% coffee— will increase from eight to eleven pesos.
According to him Press release published by Cubadebate on October 25, 2022, the measure was adopted on August 31 due to the “notable and sustained increase in prices in the international market of inputs and raw materials for agri-food production, which includes coffee, a crop that in its productive, industrial and roasting processes, have high costs and for which a Development Program has been designed that allows greater efficiency in their production and roasting”.
Whoever reads that part of the statement carefully will notice that the note mutes regarding the increase in the purchase price of the grain to the producers, a fact that, as has been seen, is the fundamental cause of the losses suffered by the processing companies. You will also infer that part of the coffee that is mixed with the peas is bought abroad and is probably a lower quality product than the national one, therefore, cheaper.
As for the aforementioned Development Program, we already know that none of the deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power will ask for accounts for its execution. In the meantime, Liborio will have to keep drinking blended coffee, if at all.
OPINION ARTICLE
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