Food shortages
in Cuba raising 'a yellow flag'
An apparent food shortage
in Cuba is raising some concern about a
potential nutrition crisis.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Mon, Feb. 16, 2004 in The Miami
Herald.
A new and apparently growing food shortage
in Cuba is making it increasingly difficult
for those who depend on Cuban pesos and
the government's ration system to obtain
basic staples, according to residents and
experts.
Over the past three months, some items
have become scarce even in usually well-stocked
stores that accept U.S. dollars, raising
concerns that the Caribbean nation could
be headed toward a nutrition crisis similar
to one in the early 1990s.
''It hasn't gotten to the point where Cubans
are using stuff not meant to be eaten, but
it's kind of a yellow flag,'' said Eric
Driggs González, humanitarian aid
coordinator for the Cuba Transition Project
at the University of Miami's Institute for
Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.
''There is definitely a shortage. As far
as the severity of it, that's hard to measure,''
Driggs said. "But there's a need to
keep an eye on it.''
Cuba has struggled to adequately feed its
11 million people since it lost its massive
Soviet subsidies in 1991. In the early '90s,
a serious eye disease caused by a deficiency
of vitamins rapidly spread across the island.
NOT PROMISING
Experts now worry that a severe food shortage
could have serious effects on an already
undernourished population. The outlook,
so far, does not look promising.
''Peso-based food product availability
decreased in 2003 compared to 2002,'' according
to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council
(USCTEC) in New York, which monitors Cuba's
economy. "The government of the Republic
of Cuba has [reported] that the quality
of food products may increase in 2004, but
that the quantity . . . may not increase.''
Among the food problems reported from Cuba:
o Residents in the central city of Santa
Clara waited in long lines when U.S. ground
chicken went on sale at a local store, only
to have the supply quickly run out, according
to a Jan. 30 report from Cuba posted on
Cubanet, a Miami-based group that compiles
reports from island residents.
o In Havana, according to a Jan. 27 report,
residents complained of a mediocre supply
of yogurt sold at peso stores. Mothers complain
that with the ration at one liter per child
per day, "they end up feeding their
children sugar water because they don't
have the money to . . . acquire yogurt in
the dollar establishments. Even then, they
say, there is a shortage of yogurt in the
dollar stores themselves.''
Cuba residents reached by telephone also
said pasta is harder to find and the supply
of vegetables is lean, but that the most
scarce product has been eggs -- long a cheap
and abundantly available staple of communist
Cuba's diet.
''The scarcity of eggs has turned them
into luxury items. For Cuban families, the
absence of eggs feels like the parting of
a loved one who abandons the house to emigrate,''
said a Feb. 5 Cubanet report from Havana.
''Eggs have disappeared,'' Lionel Pérez,
the Havana director for the Catholic-run
Caritas charity program, said in a phone
interview. "But we always have difficulties
here . . . We make do with what we have.''
SERIES OF PROBLEMS
Experts point to a series of problems,
including low productivity and inefficient
distribution, to explain the shortage of
eggs and other food products. For more than
four decades, the Caribbean nation produced
all its own eggs. Two years ago it began
buying U.S. eggs. But the imports stopped
when U.S. market prices doubled in mid-2003.
Even as the U.N. World Food Program carries
out a supplemental food program in eastern
Cuba, its Havana director disputed the reports
of a food shortage. ''That's totally out
of context,'' Rosa Antolin said. "There
is always a lack of one item or another,
but there is no food shortage.''
''Our support program in Cuba was implemented
because we don't want the advances that
have been made in health and education,
which are outstanding, to suffer setbacks,''
she said. "We want to help them recuperate
and maintain their nutrition.''
It is nevertheless clear that monthly subsidized
ration allowances have grown slimmer over
the years, providing Cubans with what most
experts agree is less than two weeks worth
of food for every month. Eggs, for example,
are restricted to 6 to 8 per person per
month.
MULTIPLE SHOPPING
To supplement their subsidized rations,
many Cubans must shop at up to nine different
types of state-run and independent markets
that charge higher dollar prices -- in a
country where the average monthly salary
is about $10 -- although many Cubans receive
dollars from relatives abroad.
''Under the present Cuban system of distribution,
access to basic goods is strongly delineated
along income lines and/or access to dollars,''
according to a September UM report. "While
the Cuban people survive with enviable resilience
and humor, food security in Cuba remains
a gravely serious matter, particularly for
those with no access to foreign currency.''
The shortage comes even as U.S. food shipments
to the island increase. The United States
jumped to seventh place among Cuba's commercial
partners in 2003 and it is the island's
largest single source of agricultural and
food products, according to USCTEC figures.
But while Cuba has been buying more U.S.
food products, the quantities of food available
on the island have not increased.
''They haven't bought more, they've just
bought the products from us,'' USCTEC President
John Kavulich said. "The truth is there
has been a steady decline in food availability
in different categories.''
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