Through the Round Table program on Wednesday, September 27, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Cuba, Alejandro Gil Fernández, officially recognized that the Island is going through one of the worst economic crises in its history, and that The life of ordinary Cubans is about to become more complicated due to the shortcomings that the country is experiencing.
In that sense, the head of the Economy confirmed that the Greater Antilles does not have the necessary foreign currency to guarantee the importation of food that constitutes the basic basket.
Gil Fernández stated that, for the moment, 100% of the basic basket had to be imported from abroad, and that several factors were affecting this process.
Among the things that the official used to justify the delays in the delivery of these products is the increase in prices that have been experienced in the international market, the restrictions of some nations such as India, which has begun to reduce the amount of rice that exports.
Although regarding the latter, the minister indicated that sufficient quantity will be available to ensure the regulated sale of rice to citizens in October.
“For October we have the rice, although it will not be possible to distribute it in the first days of the month, because the arrival of ships is expected. “We are working to maintain milk and bread,” said the official.
When talking about coffee, whose distribution is four months late, Gil Fernández indicated that we will have to wait for the national harvest to conclude, since there is not enough money to buy it from another country.
“We are not in national coffee production time. Coffee in the international market is above $2,000 per ton. We have to depend on what we are able to produce. “We cannot make the commitment to import everything we need, but rather distribute equitably what we can produce,” he declared.
It is important to remember that the official program also touched on other future problems that will affect the population of the Island, such as prolonged blackouts due to fuel shortages.
The Minister of Mines Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, spoke on the subject, predicting daily damage of up to 700 MW.
According to these projections, the lack of fuel should improve from the second week of October; Although it is unknown how true this will be, especially now that the Mexican government indicated that it would stop sending crude oil to the Island as donations.
