Havana/Denied ad nauseam, the cliché that the word crisis, in Chinese, is called “opportunity” has been used by both politicians and gurus of motivational talks and this week the national food officials have resorted to its spirit to request a change in the Cuban diet. Sitting with Marxlenin Pérez Valdés in his program Squaring the BoxRoberto Caballero, member of the National Executive Committee of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians, and José Carlos Cordobés, general director of Industrial Policy of the Ministry of the Food Industry, defended that to achieve food sovereignty the best thing would be to change habits that clash with the reality of Cuban soils and eliminate potatoes and rice from the usual diet.
“And an Italian once told me quite rightly: ‘Why do you spend so much money on potatoes if you have sweet potatoes, cassava, yams, taro, and with the money you spend on potatoes you could flood the country with all those products?'” Caballero said. The technician explained that the potato has never adapted well to the territory, and although he did not give the reason – it is a crop that thrives well in areas with a temperate to cool climate, while the warm humidity of the Island favors pests – he specified the enormous investment that the country has made to plant it, keep it at adequate temperatures and stop the diseases that threaten it.
It is an unprofitable product, he wanted to make it clear, but he presented it in such a way that Pérez Valdés herself was scared, especially when she stressed that rice is not an easy food to handle in Cuba either. “Roberto even wants to change our rice! José Carlos, you will help me with this,” the presenter was alarmed when Caballero explained that this grain has been incorporated into the national culture without being realistic. “We are not Asian, that is not a Cuban habit,” he stressed, before considering that, although it is already an established tradition, that could also change.
That part of the conversation is the one that has caused the most ink to flow among the population, although there were other more interesting ones in the program, which addressed the situation of food production. The officials reviewed the factors that have led to the current terrible situation, without stopping throwing stones at the Government. The energy situation, the passage of Melissa, the shortage of inputs for farming and, of course, the US “blockade” were mentioned, but a widespread policy on the Island for decades was also openly criticized: the price cap.
“There are many things that could be resolved, but that have not been resolved this year and that in the long run result in production levels being totally insufficient”
“For the farmer, production costs have skyrocketed enormously, and then suddenly we try to regulate it by putting price caps and the only consequence is that production stops, because the farmer cannot sell at a price lower than what it costs him to do so,” said Cordobés, who also criticized the delays that come with bureaucratization.
“There is the whole problem of non-payments, there is the whole problem of delays in the procedures that farmers have to do. In other words, there are many things that could be resolved, but that have not been resolved this year and that in the long run result in production levels being totally insufficient,” he lamented.
Cordobés, however, also made some considerations that surprised viewers. “Today the country has an infrastructure from an industrial point of view that, with a different dynamic from the point of view of agriculture and improving the country’s financial flows and being able to import the raw materials that are needed, today the industry has the capacity to respond to the demands of the population. I think it is something very important,” he said, or what is the same: if things worked well in the country, there would be no problem. Of platitude.
The officials, satisfied because the industry “does not need investments, but rather exploits them efficiently,” regretted that at this time there is no foreign currency to import everything that would be needed and congratulated themselves because the “chains” – the MSMEs – have contributed a lot and in a satisfactory manner. “We must be closing around 70,000 tons of product with these actors. Without them, we would not have incorporated that amount into our system. So, in some way, the industry has been able to take advantage of that scenario.”
“Well, I do organic agriculture. It’s less efficient, it’s more expensive, but I sell the most expensive product. So, the one who has money eats healthy and the other one who keeps getting poisoned. I mean, that doesn’t fit in our system.”
Roberto Caballero also analyzed the conditions of Cuba, with a tradition of small farms in the majority of agriculture – with the exception of sugar cane… for reasons that he attributed mainly to the climate and the soils and their salinity. “There are those out there who have said that we cannot be self-sufficient in food. And that Cuba has no conditions,” he mentioned, and also admitted that in a global world full sovereignty is not essential either, but that it is important to accept the circumstances of each country.
“The other day we spoke with some Koreans and they said that they practically do not produce. They, since they have a lot of minerals and export a lot of technology, what they do is: with the money they collect they buy food. Ah, okay, that is a solution. But we do not even consider that, even if we had that, it would be valid for us, because they do not have a blockade. We do,” he stressed.
The officials also spoke at length about sustainable agriculture and said that Cuba must balance that model because, while it is important, in some sense it can contradict the state’s principles of social justice. “There, they solve this environmental problem very easily. Well, I do organic agriculture. It is less efficient, it is more expensive, but I sell the most expensive product. So, the one who has money eats healthy and the other one who continues to get poisoned. In other words, that does not fit in our system,” they stated. However, they do not give up on the fact that, in the long run, an improvement can be achieved.
The final block was dedicated entirely to trying to theorize about how to produce more, but, again, everything came down to the usual story of the milkmaid and how with foreign currency, exporting, entering… things would improve. “It is a great task that we have for the year 2026 and things can be done in this scenario. With these complexities, things can be done,” they promised. One more year.
