The Government of Cuba warned that it will not be able to guarantee subsidized bread in the basic basket until the end of March 2024 due to a shortage of wheat flour, official media reported this Sunday.
The Ministry of the Food Industry (MINAL) stated that the lack of bread offered through the ration card is due to “specific situations” with “planned shipments”, without giving more details on the matter.
The island imports around 80% of the products it consumes and in recent years has closed agreements with allied countries – such as Russia – to guarantee the entry of wheat flour to make bread, a basic good in the Cuban diet.
The Caribbean country has five mills to process wheat: three in Havana, one in Santiago de Cuba (east) and another in Cienfuegos (southeast). The latter is the only asset and only produces 250 tons of flour per day. Cuba requires 20,000 tons monthly just to produce bread for the regulated family basket, according to Cubadebate.
The crisis with the distribution of bread coincides with the return of blackouts due to fuel shortages in the last two months. Cuba suffers from serious shortages of food and medicine, as well as frequent power outages, rampant inflation and partial dollarization of the economy. This situation is due to the confluence of the pandemic, the tightening of Washington sanctions and errors in economic and monetary policy.
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