Oscar Espinosa Chepe
HAVANA, February (www.cubanet.org) - Eggs, a mainstay of the Cuban diet and
sometimes primary source of protein, have been getting increasingly scarce in
Cuba, to the point where lately they have only been available to accredited
foreign diplomats.
The egg ration of 12 eggs per person per month, at least in the city of
Havana, was reduced to six in 2001, but they were usually available in the black
market at 2 pesos each, or in the dollar stores at 10 cents each.
Now, when found, black market eggs cost 3 pesos each and in the dollar
stores they are only sold to diplomats.
The problem seems to arise from a scarcity of chicken feed, which in Cuba is
made from imported raw materials. There have been a number of chicken farms that
have closed and sent their employees home recently, due to the lack of feed.
In the past, Cuba received raw materials used to make feeds from the former
Soviet Union and egg production was one of the few success stories of its
agriculture; to the extent that at one point they were taken off the rationing
lists.
Production figures for 2001 have not been released yet, but preliminary
reports in the official press suggest a better than 10 percent reduction from
2000 levels.
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original en español
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