FOOD-CUBA: Crisis in the Kitchen

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 6 1996 (IPS) - The city food markets throughout Cuba are filled with beans, oranges, bananas and pork but, because there are not enough buyers with sufficient dollars, many household kitchens remain short of food.

Although widespread scarcity of foodstuffs are a thing of the past, markets governed by the laws of supply and demand mean that prices are too high for the average Cuban.

The economic crisis that has gripped the country since 1990 cut food imports in half, pulled agricultural production down and dealt a virtual death blow to the local livestock population.

Amid this grim scenario, President Fidel Castro will fly to Rome next week to attend the World Food Summit Nov 13-17 whose aim is to halve the number of undernourished people in the world – currently 800 million- by the year 2015.

Back home, Cubans will support Castro, and other Heads of State and Government, in their efforts.

“I can consider myself privileged, because I earn 340 pesos monthly – 140 more than average. But even with my salary I can’t go shopping every week,” said civil engineer Isabel Nodar.

Another couple, Rafael and Nodar Diaz have a combined income of 600 pesos (officiall on a par with the US dollar) but dont earn any of the dollars which are needed to buy a number of basic items. They must support their two young daughters and a 65-year-old grandmother (who receives a 100-peso monthly pension from the State).

“I have to buy at least 10 dollars a month to get milk and oil, which are among the basic products that are only sold in dollars,” said Diaz, who long ago was forced to spend the family’s entire savings on food.

In spite of the challenge of making their salaries stretch to the end of the month, Diaz and Nodar say the situation has greatly improved since two years ago, when the peso crashed to 140 against the dollar on the black market.

Although the government currently keeps the peso on a par with the dollar, official exchange bureaus buy dollars at 18 pesos and sell them for 20. Nevertheless, most Cubans feel that price is too steep.

Sources with the Institute of Economic Research say that a government programme to clean up public finances brought the currency in circulation down by 24 percent since 1994.

In late 1995, circulating currency totalled nine billion pesos, 64 percent of which was deposited in the National Bank. More than 80 percent of the deposits were concentrated in 14 percent of the savings accounts.

“Two years ago there was money, but you couldn’t buy even a simple onion. Now I have no problems finding onions — but I don’t have anything to buy them with!” complained 64-year-old Elio Valle.

In the 1980s, Cubans enjoyed the rationed sale of subsidised foodstuffs and a well-stocked parallel market. But with the crisis, they suddenly found themselves without the parallel market, and faced with the need to resort to illegal vendors to satisfy their needs. The problems of black-outs, urban transport, cooking-fuel shortages and unemployment have paled in comparison with the difficulty in putting a solid meal on the table every day.

The system of rationed sales, which in 1989 guaranteed a daily 1,500 to 1,600 kilocalories per inhabitant, has declined in the 1990s. According to experts in nutrition, at the peak of the food crisis in 1993, the system ensured only 1,000 kilocalories.

Havana residents today can buy around 2.70 kgs of rice and sugar, 570 gms of grains and 13 kgs of vegetables a month at subsidised prices. Milk is guaranteed for children under seven or people with special dietary needs. Eight eggs are also available per month, and meat depends on availability.

The rest must be bought in stores that sell in foreign exchange or the free agricultural markets.

Cubans pay 2.85 dollars for a litre of cooking oil and 100 pesos for a kg of ham. Powdered milk can be bought for half the official price on the black market.

The Centre of Sociological and Psychological Research of Cuba’s Academy of Sciences warns that one of the Cuban population’s toughest problems is satisfying basic nutritional requirements.

In a yet unpublished 1994 poll among Cubans aged 14 to 24, 21 percent mentioned “finding a place to eat” as what they most needed to feel happy. Seven percent said eating was their biggest source of pleasure, and “lack of food” was mentioned by 20 percent as their biggest worry. Thirty-four percent said dissatisfaction with food is Cuban society’s worst problem.

FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend a minimum daily consumption of 2,310 kilocalories and 35.5 gms of protein a day.

Local authorities say that from 1965 to 1988, consumption per inhabitant rose from 2,550 to 2,950 kilocalories and from 66 to 79 gms of protein a day, which put Cubans in a privileged position in Latin America. But with the demise of the socialist bloc in Europe, the country’s chief suppliers disappeared, and basic food products became scarce.

The year 1989 marked a watershed in the national economy. At that time, the country of 11 million imported 79 percent of the grains consumed, 99 percent of beans, 21 percent of meat, 38 percent of milk and dairy products and 94 percent of oils and fats.

Economy and Planning Ministry reports indicate that in 1992, one of the worst years of the crisis, Cuba spent 500 million dollars on food imports, less than half the 1989 level.

According to Armando Nova, head researcher at the Institute of Economic Research, the deterioration in food security in the early years of the decade was seen in both the quantity and the quality of foodstuffs.

The latest available figures (from 1994) show that 77 percent of the calories consumed by the population came from carbohydrates, with proteins of animal origin reaching only 39 percent of the recommended total. At the peak of the food crisis in 1993, consumption crashed to 1,860 kilocalories, 46 gms of protein and 26 gms of fat per inhabitant, significantly under recommended levels.

Average daily consumption began to pick up with the opening of the agricultural markets in 1994 and a 20 percent growth in agricultural production.

But Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina says the U.S. boycott of Cuba makes it impossible for the government to have access to the resources necessary to ensure an adequate nutritional level for the population.

In a letter to the United Nations, Robaina said that in mid- 1995, consumption of Vitamin A dropped 67 percent, Vitamin C 62 percent, iron 22 percent and calcium 19 percent, hitting pregnant women and children aged four and under hardest.

In the capital alone 115 more cases of endemic neuropathy were reported in the first half of 1996 than in the same period last year, according to Jorge Rene Diaz, the director of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Havana.

The illness, which first appeared in April 1992, affected 50,000 people in 1993. It is attributed to the combination of toxic elements — such as tobacco and alcohol — with malnutrition.

“Two years ago I got better with vitamins and thought I was cured. But now the symptoms have come back, and everything has started all over again,” said Edith Diaz, a university professor who has suffered from endemic neuropathy since 1993.

Edith Diaz’ case is typical: temporary improvement, with a sudden return of chronic fatigue, the inability to think, dizziness and a weakness in the limbs that makes it almost impossible to stand up.

“Cubans are used to a high level of consumption of nutrients, which dropped abruptly. The body can’t help but react,” says physician Lupe Gomez. “The real effects of the crisis have yet to be seen,” she adds. “We have to wait until the children born in the past five years grow up.”