Havana Cuba. – Among the most disastrous activities of the Cuban economy is, without a doubt, cattle farming. The rulers of the country meet again and again with the ranchers and then come up with a plan of measures with a view to trying to resolve the debacle, but in the end everything remains the same. There are fewer and fewer copies, less milk, and beef continues to be a practically unknown food for a good part of ordinary citizens.
In the midst of such chaos, the newspaper Granma made it known that in the province of Matanzas more than 500 animals recently died as a result of the theft and illegal slaughter of large cattle. It is said that the lack of control of the mass, indiscipline and lack of demand have been the main causes of these events, which occur the same in state cattle, as in private hands.
With this information, the ruling party insists on its old discourse of holding criminals and anti-socials responsible for the critical situation faced by cattle farming in the country.
However, the official organ of the Communist Party says nothing about the terrible state that this sector of the economy is exhibiting as a result of bad government policies, insufficient feeding of cattle, low birthrates, and high death rates among animals, according to statistics offered by the regime itself.
The 2021 Statistical Yearbook shows how the livestock mass in the country has decreased. In 2017 there were 3,865,500 head of cattle in Cuba. The following year the mass dropped to 3,808,400 heads. 2019 closed with a slight recovery, reporting 3,817,000 head of cattle. But, both in 2020 and 2021, the fall has been in a tailspin. The first of those years closed with 3,752,400 heads, while in 2021 3,657,300 were reported.
As regards deliveries of cattle for slaughter, which is finally related to the existence of beef in the markets, there has also been a continued decline. In 2017, these deliveries amounted to 507,500 head of cattle. The following year 485,800 heads were delivered. In 2019 deliveries only reached 475,000 heads. And in 2020 and 2021 the debacle occurred. In 2020, 392,800 head of cattle were delivered to slaughter, while in 2021 it bottomed out, with a delivery of only 362,300 head of cattle.
Milk production, so necessary in the industry and for direct consumption by the population, has been declining alarmingly. In 2017, 536,400 tons were reached. In 2018 it enjoyed a slight recovery, reaching 576,900 tons. From then on, the decline has been eloquent: 512,000 tons in 2019, 455,300 in 2020, and the meager amount of 374,000 tons in 2021.
With regard to milk, the information from Granma He argues that “producers are left owing thousands of liters of milk in sales to the State, while some peasants sell, on the left, a liter for one hundred pesos.”
The truth is that many of the actions that the Castroite hierarchy qualifies as “theft and illegal slaughter of cattle” are the response of the population to the restrictions imposed by the government for the slaughter and legal commercialization of beef. A food that many Cubans have never seen on their table, but that abounds in the tourist centers for foreignersand in the homes of the power elite.
OPINION ARTICLE
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