Cuban Colada

Official concedes flaws in food processing; much is available but improperly managed

Food production is not the problem in Cuba, the nation's Food and Fishing Industries minister said Saturday in Havana – the transportation, storage and distribution of food are.
The production of comestibles exceeds the ability of state industries to process them, so a lot of food goes to waste, María del Carmen Concepción González told the National Assembly in an end-of-year report. Examples, as cited by the newspaper Juventud Rebelde:
• The Ministry of Agriculture originally contracted for 47,000 tons of tomatoes; farmers delivered 110,000 tons.
• Another contract called for 17,000 tons of mangoes; 35,000 tons were delivered.
Left unsaid was how the excess production was disposed of. Juventud Rebelde this year published several reports about transportation deficiencies that left large quantities of farm products rotting in railroad stations and warehouses.
• As regards the dairy industry, "despite the investments made [...] its capacity does not allow the processing of the increases in production [...] a situation that has been eased by the magnificent results of the direct sales in market places," Concepción said.
Total milk production in 2009 was 324 million liters; direct sales disposed of 144 million liters, she said.
In other words, if it weren't for local food outlets, the state-run processing centers could not cope with the volume of available milk.
• The year 2009 saw increases in the production of canned meats, refined oil, cheese, ice cream, canned tomatoes, fish, wheat flour, corn flour, and nonalcoholic beverages.
• A reduction was noted in the production of pork, soy products, unrefined oil, yogurt, alcoholic beverages and beer.
"The insufficient industrial ability to process agricultural products, the instability and shortages in the supplies of raw materials, an inefficient system of specialized transportation, and the presence of many subjective factors are some of the causes of this reduction," Concepción reported.
• Complaints abound about the quality of bread, produced both locally and by provincial bakeries, she said, conceding that her ministry "lacks exigency and monitoring."
"The people expect more from us," the minister said, "and that will be possible to the degree that we can produce more and with greater efficiency, while adhering to the approved budgets."
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Poster on wall is indigestible to diner

Bradley Blakeman is no fan of communism.
A Republican Party consultant who works in Washington, Blakeman stopped the other day to eat at a restaurant and almost choked on his food when he saw a poster of Ernesto Che Guevara and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on the wall.
According to The Washington Post's Reliable Source column, Blakeman fired a letter to the restaurant's owner, Andy Shallal, to complain about the pictorial tribute to "two of history's most notorious and infamous figures, who dedicated their lives to bringing misery and death to thousands of their political enemies."
The poster is "offensive and inappropriate," he wrote, and asked Shallal to remove it.
Shallal wrote back, saying that Guevara and Lenin "represent the struggles of working people. [,,,] They fought against the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few."
Blakeman told Reliable Source that he'll never eat at Shallal's restaurant again.
Referring to the fact that Shallal is an Iraqi immigrant, Blakeman said: "A guy who fled oppression and built a business in the U.S. – he never would have been able to do that under Che Guevara or Lenin."
Shallal's retort: "[George] Bush caused more death and destruction in the world than Che or Lenin.".
–Renato Pérez Pizarro, with thanks to Lesley Clark..
 

Cuba plans to boost sales of rum to Russia and the Russians warm up to the prospect

Cuba is planning to increase its sales of rum to Russia to "more than one million liters per year," Juan González Escalona, vice president of the state-run Cuba Ron S.A., said at a Havana press conference on Wednesday.
The prospects of trade with Russia are promising, the businessman said, according to the news agency RIA-Novosti. "Our production has a huge market potential in Russia and we're taking steps to develop this area. Our current supply is about 30,000 to 50,000 boxes per year. I hope that, within a few years, we'll be talking about hundreds of thousands" of boxes.
One box contains 9 liters of rum, so the current volume is 270,000 to 450,000 liters per year.
The Russian market consumes the brands Havana Club, Cubay, Varadero, Santiago de Cuba, and Caney.
Are the Russians ready to triple their consumption of rum? Vadim Iosifovich Drobiz, chairman of the Russian Chamber of Commerce's subcommittee on alcoholic beverages, believes they are. (Russians consume 2 billion liters of vodka per year, official estimates say.)
Until 2005, the foreign drinks of choice were (in descending order) tequila, gin, rum and absinthe, but after 2005 "the buyer opted for rum and now its market share is 10 to 11 percent," Drobiz told the business journal Sostav.
From January to September 2009, Russians bought 1.5 million liters of rum, a figure that is expected to reach 2 million liters by the end of this year. "Therefore, the future plans of the [Cuban] exporters-suppliers appear to be quite viable," Drobiz said. (For more on González's presentation, click here.)

[UPDATE: Moscow is trying to curb Russians' vodka habit, The New York Times reports. Click here.]
–Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Raúl: Work the land harder, produce more

Excerpts from the speech delivered July 26, 2009, in Holguín by Raúl Castro, president of the Cuban Councils of State and Ministers. Translated by The Miami Herald.
On July 26, 2007, in Camagüey, I referred to the imperative need to turn back to the soil, to make it produce more. At the time, almost half the cultivable land was idle or deficiently exploited. At that moment, we made a call to publicize, as quickly as possible and without improvisation, every accomplishment by the outstanding producers in the state-run farm sector, and to stimulate the hard work they perform, as well as to definitely settle the harmful debts incurred by the state in the [farm] sector.
The granting of land in usufruct proceeds in a satisfactory manner, although insufficiencies persist in some municipalities more than others. Out of more than 110,000 applications made, about 82,000 have been approved so far, involving some 690,000 hectares, that is, 39 percent of the idle land.
I consider this to be too little. It is not a question of running out to distribute [land] uncontrollably; it is a question of doing it more efficiently. Of doing it in a more organized manner. And that's a top-priority strategic task.
One of the speakers who preceded me said it was a national security issue to produce the goods that are available in this country, on which we spend hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars -- and I don't exaggerate -- to bring them from other countries.
The land is there! The Cubans are here! Let's see if we work better or not, if we produce or not, if we keep our word or not! [CHEERS]
It's not a question of shouting "Motherland or death! Down with imperialism"! The blockade pummels us and the land lies there, waiting for our efforts. Even though the heat increasingly worsens, there's no alternative but to make [the land] produce. I think we're in agreement. [APPLAUSE]
As I fly in a helicopter, the length and breadth of the country, I sometimes ask the pilot to circle over a hamlet or a city, etc. I can assure you that in most of them there is an excess of land -- good quality land, right next to our backyards -- that is not being cultivated.
That is why we're making plans to move ahead with intensive cultivation and irrigation, as much of it as possible. To provide water and resources. [...] Almost half of the land already distributed has been declared free of marabú and other undesirable plants, and almost 225,000 hectares have been planted, that is, one third [of the distributed land].
We cannot feel at ease so long as there is a single hectare of land not usefully utilized and someone willing to make it produce. Any land that is not useful for the production of food must be used for the planting of trees.

For an Associated Press report on the speech, click here.

In test, farm services will be decentralized and cash incentives will be paid to farmers

Beginning Aug. 1, the ministry of Agriculture will decentralize its activities in two provinces on an experimental basis, to see if autonomy leads to efficiency in production and distribution.
According to the newspaper Rebel Youth, 23 state-run companies in the provinces of Havana and Havana City will deal directly with individual farm producers and cooperatives, providing them with suitable capital, transportation and containers. The farmers can then arrange for the collection of their own produce and its delivery to wholesalers. Today, farmers must depend on the collection and distribution facilities of the ministry, which are undependable, inefficient and insufficient, according to most accounts -- including Rebel Youth's. (See our May 31 blog item "Veggies Rot in Sun; Inept Pickup Blamed.")
The newspaper described the experiment -- which involves the ministries of Agriculture, Transportation and Domestic Trade -- as "unprecedented."
As an incentive, farm workers will be paid a bonus of 16 U.S. cents for every 100 pounds of produce they deliver to the wholesalers.
In addition, the ministry of Domestic Trade disclosed that the 142 state-run food markets that operate in Havana City will grow to 310 by year's end, to 450 in 2010 and 600 in 2011, to better satisfy shoppers' demand and to ensure greater distribution of farm goods.
In addition, the government will authorize "small processing industries" to can and sell outdated produce. Click here to read the entire article, in Spanish.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

Veggies rot in sun; inept pickup blamed

Farmers are predicting bumper crops of sweet potato, plantain, malanga, cucumber, squash and other produce at a time when tons of those and other vegetables are rotting in the sun because there are no means to transport them to the cities, the newspaper Rebel Youth reported Sunday.
At a state-run collection center in Güira de Melena, Havana province, reporters for the newspaper photographed about 500,000 pounds of produce that, according to administrators, could not be distributed to wholesalers and would likely spoil in the open air. (See photo above.)
A farmers' cooperative from that city has filed a 146,343-peso lawsuit against the collection agency, Acopio, for the loss of 261,000 pounds of tomatoes that were not picked up on time. Because of inefficient or unavailable methods of distribution, "hundreds of tons of tomato rotted in the loading bays of several establishments in the country," the article said.
The newspaper quotes a farmer as saying: "It is very sad to learn that you sweated for nothing, all the more when you were answering to a call [...] to produce more after the ravages caused by the hurricanes. If those [vegetables] were not needed, it wouldn't hurt so much, but the fact is that Cuba is buying food abroad at extremely high prices.
"Now they tell us there is no transportation and that [Havana City] is overstocked with food. Are the city folks the only ones who eat? Other provinces need the stuff that's being wasted away here." To read the entire article, in Spanish, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.