It was a collection of errors and misfortunes: slow investments; lack of articulation between state and private entities; A hurricane and a pandemic, and uninformed bureaucratic decisions around a raw material accumulated for years and in the process of deterioration, generated millionaire losses in BaracoaCuba’s chocolate heart.
Founded 55 years ago by Commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the state factory derived from cocoa was the only processor of this plant in Cuba and the epicenter of the country’s chocolate production.
This emblematic industry, created in 1963, suffered a prolonged technological and structural wear that, added to the devastation caused in 2016 by Hurricane Matthew and the Covid-19 pandemic, ended up paralyzing the production process for long years.
In this regard, Raúl Matos Pérez, director of the agroforestry and coconut company, pointed out to Granma that “an investment conceived for less than one year took more than a five years to execute, and the raw material over -accumulated grew” due to the paralysis of the chocolatera.
In 2018, a late modernization attempt began with the purchase of new technological lines to replace obsolete equipment, but factors such as pandemic and problems with external suppliers postponed the update for more than five years.
Accumulation of raw material
The factory operated only intermittently from November 2022 to the end of 2023, without processing a significant fraction of cocoa that Baracoa and other regions of the Cuban East produced tirelessly.
The main problem was that, despite the industrial stoppage, the crops and harvests did not cease, which accumulated around 800 tons of cocoa in local deposits, without a clear destination and in not always optimal conditions.
Neseer Machado Matos, administrator of one of the small cocoa companies that arise in the heat of the business and located in Paso de Cuba, said to Granma that they were sold cocoa because the state entity “was spoiled in the stores, and had no one to buy.”
Such scenario deteriorated the quality of the grain and caused significant economic losses, just when the international cocoa value climbed from about $ 2,000 a ton in 2022 to more than $ 12,700 in 2024, according to market data.
Since then, although the value has fluctuated, it has remained high.
The sale of cocoa to MSMEs: an improvised and controversial exit
Given this crisis, the agroforestry and coconut company decided to sell part of that cocoa stored to six Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) recently arising as independent economic actors with legal contracts to market cocoa products.
Ogli Pérez, economic director of the agroforestry and coconut, confirmed that 101 tons of cocoa were sold to these MSMEs at prices almost double what the state factory usually paid, with the intention of avoiding impairment losses.
The MSMEs processed and marketed chocolate and products derived from small quantities, often with rustic technologies and questionable standards of quality and safety, according to the report.
“Thus ball of inflation, while rolling, grew, leaving earnings multiplied to their managers, as well as –magic of prices – unloaded the final and stronger blow on consumers ”, assured the official official body of the Communist Party.
In this regard, Mayelín Frómeta Alayo, mayor of Baracoa, said that “a main product, destined for the municipality’s industry, has gone to elsewhere” and added that after analysis it was determined that “the agroforestry and coconut made it clear that it should not continue selling cocoa to the mipymes.”
“We stopped that process; we knew what it represented,” said the official.
Throughout the sale to the private sector, the state entity obtained 10 million pesos. “Oh generosity of those prices that cover productive deficits and commercialization at the wrong time! ”, He whipped the newspaper.
The State error according to Granma and the reproaches to their entrepreneurs
The newspaper’s report Granma He evaluated that the fundamental error of the State was the excessive delay in the execution of the investment to modernize the state plant.
Raúl Matos Pérez admitted that there was “will to find a solution to a problem, without thinking what could happen later” and that “the works planned for six months extended too much time … there was raw material that was almost eight years in stores”, causing an irreversible deterioration of cocoa.
In addition, the report questions that pragmatic measures such as direct export at a time when the international cocoa price reached historical maximums, which would have generated significant income for the country, was not chosen.
It also criticizes the approval of MSMEs with cocoa production line, without evaluating its affectation in the state comprehensive strategy, as well as the permissiveness for self -employed workers and informal actors to process cocoa without control or adequate standards, fragmenting the market and facilitating illegal trade.
Ogli Pérez also revealed that “cocoa derivatives owes 845,000 mlc to the company that I represent”, pointing out problems of unpaid that affect the sector.
The necessary transformation of the chocolate sector in Baracoa
The emergency of MSMEs and independent workers processing cocoa can be an opportunity to boost and diversify the sector, provided that they are properly integrated into the productive system with a better technology and quality control.
The report of Granma It does not deepen the version of private producers, nor in their views about what happened, which would undoubtedly enriched this story.
However, at least it does not directly hold the private ones for what happened. “Are the MSMEs the primary heads of the current problem, more when they were legally conceived and their object duly approved?” The medium wonders.
Instead, it does regret that producers have begun to sell their crops to individuals “overlapping” and “apart from their commitments” with the State.
“With the chain reaction, the loss has moved to the cocoa, to start a clandestine and harmful journey for the local economy.
Baracoa, which represents approximately 75 % of the national cocoa production, has enormous potential to reorient its industry towards a more modern, profitable and socially beneficial model.
The international cocoa price of July 31, 2025 was approximately 8 333.67 dollars per metric ton, showing an increase of 2.58 % compared to the previous day.
In the last month the price has fallen 8.89 %, but there is still 3.64 % higher than a year ago, according to references of entities that follow up on Commodities and raw materials, such as Libertex and Wallet Investor.
