Havana/In Camagüey, livestock farming closed the last balance with critical non-compliance: beef only reached 77% of the plan and more than 10 million liters of milk did not reach the industry; while bee honey – whose production has historically been an important source of foreign currency for Cuba as it is an export product – remained at 53%, according to sector authorities.
This week, according to the official media Forward, at the end of the visit of comprehensive control of the National Bureau of the National Association of Small Farmers (Anap), its president, Félix Duarte Ortega, recognized these deficiencies. One of the most sensitive points was the increase in crime, which in 2025 caused the loss of more than two thousand heads of cattle and has become one of the biggest concerns of the peasant sector.
Added to this are the debts accumulated in accounts receivable, which affect 43 cooperatives and 97 individual producers; along with structural problems such as the shortage of containers for the collection of agricultural production, delays in the genetic improvement of livestock, the deterioration of milk cooling thermoses, among others.
The solution proposed by Duarte Ortega has been to “reinforce support” for cooperative members and farmers, formulas that the Cuban peasantry has been hearing for decades without visible results.
The solution proposed by Duarte Ortega has been to “reinforce support” for cooperative members and farmers
As I already know has registered in previous yearsthe deterioration of the sector is not only due to the contingency of the crisis that is suffocating the Island, for which the official position of the Government has always blamed the US embargo – and which the ruler Díaz-Canel reiterated in his appearance yesterday Thursday – but is the result of years of unfair prices, criminalization of the producer and an inefficient state structure.
In other official bodies such as Newspaper 26from Las Tunas, has also been admitted the existence of a considerable number of state agricultural companies operating at losses, unable to cover costs or fulfill production plans: inefficiency, poor management and a business structure that consumes resources without generating real benefits for the economy or for producers.
This context makes the words of “increased attention” sound like a call for help rather than a development policy. The most affected have not only been the cooperative members of Camagüey, but also many rural families who have seen milk and beef production fall for years below the goals promised by the State and who are living in increasingly precarious conditions.
