AREQUIPA, Peru – Farmers in Cienfuegos expressed their dissatisfaction and concerns about the debacle of agriculture and livestock on the island during the first assembly of the province on the way to the thirteenth congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).
A report from the state newspaper September 5th He points out that the main problems include the accumulation of non-payments to rice and milk producers, along with the inconveniences of banking promoted by the Cuban regime since mid-2023.
Such is the case of Juan Carlos Durán Rodríguez, a cattle and landowner, who explained that even though he and his son comply with the agreed figures for the delivery of milk to the Escambray Dairy Products Company, between 13 and 18 liters per day, the Cuban State does not fulfill its part.
“They stopped paying us in national currency three months ago, and they have never paid us the outstanding currency due to overpayment,” the farmer complains.
Since he makes a living from dairy farming and does not have the money to spare, Durán Rodríguez admits that he has been on the verge of abandoning his activities.
“This is how we support the family, we pay for electricity and we invest, for example, in fencing, which is very expensive, since a roll of wire costs up to 18,000 pesos,” he said.
The debts affect mostly the farmers who are dedicated to growing rice in Aguada de Pasajeros, who for four months have been waiting for payment from the Agroindustrial Grain Company, an entity marked as “illiquid.”
“Last year I went five months without pay, and now the same thing. It is a very difficult situation, because I am a large producer, I own more than three caballerías of land, with high production costs that are around four million pesos. In addition, I have a family, equipment to fix, and today the repair of a tractor costs between 200,000 and 300,000 pesos,” complains Pedro López Izquierdo, who grows rice, sugarcane and various crops.
He stressed that non-payments by the Cuban authorities also hamper production. “And one lives off what one produces,” he added.
For her part, Taymí Torres Machín, president of the Pedro Filgueiras Credit and Services Cooperative (CCS), explains that problems with resources and non-payments by companies are causing a significant decrease in production.
“Otherwise, we would have increases in production of rice, but the reality is that we do not see solutions and the farmers are very upset with these issues. If in 2018 we contributed 68,000 quintals (q), in the recent campaign we delivered only 160 tons”, equivalent to 1,600 q.
Some of the unpaid debts in Cienfuegos reach millions of dollars. Caridad Capote Core, deputy director of the Agroindustrial Grain Company, said that her company requested a loan from the Bank and hopes that the Wholesale Food Products Company will settle the 16 million pesos it owes them, so that they can pay the rice farmers.
The absence of banking authorities in the assembly process prevented light from being shed on another of the issues that concern the members of CCS Pedro Filgueiras Solís: banking.
“There are no large units here to make extra cash,” said Durán Rodríguez. “You go to the warehouse and there is never any money, at the Bank They also have no funds, and this is a big limitation, because we have to pay for things in cash. Fuel, when it appears ‘on the left’, costs 8,000 pesos in cash,” he added.
The exposure of these problems at the provincial level is a reality that is evident on a larger scale, at the national level, in the daily life of the Cuban people. The Island is going through a deep crisis, marked by food shortages, the origin of which can be found (among other causes) in the low productivity of the agricultural and livestock sectors.
For years, farmers have been expressing dissatisfaction with the model imposed by the Cuban regime, aggravated by the government’s failed economic policies and excessive control by the authorities. Far from improving, the situation for farmers seems to be getting more complicated with new challenges such as banking and inflation.
