Last August, Cuba purchased food and agricultural equipment worth $39.91 million from the United States, which represents an increase of 35% compared to July and 17% compared to August 2022. Imported products, according to data from the Cuba-US Economic and Trade Councilwere chicken, which occupies first place, coffee, sweets, cleaning substances, backhoes and tractors for use, and automobile parts.
The United States, which continues to consolidate itself as one of the main exporters of inputs to the Island, also sent pork, rice, grapes, cookies, waffles, beer and soft drinks, hams, pasta, yeast, salt and sugar. In addition, he ordered electrical equipment, such as immersion water heaters.
In its report, the Council also took stock of imports from the United States from January to August 2023, for which the Island paid a total of 232,487,283 dollars, while in the same period of the previous year the amount was 197,037 .244 dollars.
The shipments were made, the report highlights, under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Improvement Act approved by George Bush in 2000, in addition to the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 and other laws signed by the Treasury Department and of Commerce, and the Office of Industry and Security. Since Cuba has benefited from this regulation, the Council states, it has received products from the United States worth more than $7,136,213,649.
The organization also clarifies that the figures revealed do not include the costs of transporting the merchandise or bank commissions for transfers.
The organization also clarifies that the figures revealed – extracted from official Washington documents – do not include the costs of transporting the merchandise or bank commissions for transfers.
As several specialists had predicted, the flow of imports from the United States – particularly chicken – has been oscillating but continuous. Despite this, shortages persist on the Island, which cannot even guarantee rationed food.
In recent months, the population had noticed a slight drop in the prices of chicken, as well as in those of oil, which, along with that meat, is the most imported thing by the new private companies that have flourished in Cuba. However, the announcement in early August of new measures to increase electronic transactions and reduce the circulation of cash threaten to once again overload the cost of the only protein of animal origin to which Cubans can now aspire.
Added to the shortage is the deep fuel crisis that the Island is going through – despite the continuous movement of tankers through Cuban ports –, which makes it difficult to transfer the products to the points of sale and warehouses, which almost always sell them within weeks. and even months late.
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