{"id":319866,"date":"2025-03-19T17:23:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T21:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=319866"},"modified":"2025-03-19T17:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T21:27:08","slug":"empty-coffee-cuban-customs-endangered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/empty-coffee-cuban-customs-endangered\/","title":{"rendered":"Empty coffee pots: without customs, there is no country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBefore, it wasn\u2019t easy. Now it\u2019s almost impossible\u201d (to have a sip of coffee), complains Professor Garc\u00eda, showing on his cracked cell phone the reason for his displeasure: a ministerial report from weeks ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, as if it were no big deal, what they\u2019re saying\u2026,\u201d says Garc\u00eda, citing the last sentence of a note from the Ministry of Domestic Trade published in early February on <\/span>Cubadebate<\/i><\/b><\/a>, which announced the \u201cnon-delivery of meat products, oil, and coffee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to this former math teacher, jewelry welder, and taxi driver who retired prematurely due to an eye injury, the announcement made it into the monthly top ten of bad news for millions of Cubans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like everyone else, Garc\u00eda doesn\u2019t have many options, and his long-standing habit of smoking a cigar with a cup of coffee in the morning, just as his father and grandfather did all their lives, is dead and gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A new Hola coffee, but at market price, which uses the product\u2019s official packaging. Photo taken from the \u201cCoffee Sales\u201d group on Facebook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new Hola coffee, but at market price<\/b><\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda has a small nest egg that, patched together in the informal market with financial fixes from \u201cwhatever comes along\u201d and the occasional \u201csalvage\u201d from abroad, is enough for the bare minimum, including buying a pack of Hola coffee<\/a>, \u201cbut not every week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the one in the ration book. That one hasn\u2019t come in since December,\u201d he clarifies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is another Hola, presumably mixed with peas, just like the official one, packaged with the same design, but weighing less (115 grams for the original \u201411 CUP official price). It sells for 85 CUP at La Cuevita, the capital\u2019s great bazaar of miracles, where you can find everything from an anxiolytic to a Soviet car body.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of Garc\u00eda\u2019s neighbors goes there every two weeks to stock up on this product, which she then sells for 150 CUP per package on her doorstep, one of the many teeming the resale market.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other offers on the informal market promise 1 kilogram of alleged Serrano and Cubita coffee for 1,500 CUP.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI avoid watery coffee,\u201d Garc\u00eda states about the also alleged Hola. \u201cAt least, when really hot, it helps me get a buzz,\u201d he says happily, while sharpening the machete he\u2019ll use to clear a couple of parterres.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c200 doubloons each,\u201d he says with a cultured mischievousness, adjusting the glove on his calloused right hand with delicate fingers after pocketing his 1980s Orient automatic watch with a green dial, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t sell it for anything in the world,\u201d under a blue overall that flaps around his body like a banner in the wind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cigars, don\u2019t even mention that. The worst of all, \u201cthose cigars that were sold on the ration book and that have also disappeared,\u201d rose from 20 CUP to 150 CUP in a couple of months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cigars taken from factories for export or manufactured in clandestine cigar selling points, without bands, for 350 or 1 USD on the black market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the counter of a private grocery shop, Caf\u00e9 Aroma is displayed at 1,580 CUP and Candelas (a blend) at 1,250 CUP. Both are Spanish. Photo: AMD.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Explaining the disaster<\/b><\/p>\n

Felipe Mart\u00ednez Su\u00e1rez, director of the Agroforestry Experimental Station located in the mountainous, coffee-producing municipality of II Frente in Santiago de Cuba, has an explanation for the disaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1961, the country achieved a record production of 60,000 tons. But over time, the decline has been considerable, due to economic, environmental, and social factors, in addition to the intensification of the U.S. blockade.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez\u2019s arguments appear in an extensive two-part report published last week in the <\/span>newspaper<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The article attempts to answer citizens\u2019 questions about the shortage of coffee in a country that taught Vietnam how to grow it in the 1970s, which, half a century later, has made the Indochinese country the second largest exporter worldwide, behind only Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n

The weight of tradition, in the Cuban case, doesn\u2019t seem to matter much. Since 1748, the year in which, according to historian Francisco P\u00e9rez de la Riva, seeds from Haitian coffee plantations were imported, the first coffee plantation on the main island was cultivated on a farm owned by Don Jos\u00e9 Gelabert near the town of Wajay, in the province of Havana.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the decline and challenges, Cuban coffee continues to be recognized for its quality as one of the most liked in the world. Alexei Yero Guevara, the only Cuban coffee taster with a Q-Grader status from the Coffee Quality Institute, praises its flavor as \u201cunparalleled,\u201d whether bitter or sweetened with honey or sugar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around 90% of the country\u2019s production comes from the mountainous region that encompasses Holgu\u00edn, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guant\u00e1namo provinces, lands with a long coffee-growing tradition dating back to the early 19th century and ecosystems that are highly conducive to producing quality crops.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gradual decline in production rates has meant that at present not even 10,000 tons are produced annually.<\/span><\/p>\n

As recently as August 2018, the online weekly <\/span>Opciones<\/span><\/i> reported that \u201cincreasing annual coffee production to reach 17,000 tons by 2022 is one of the main challenges in the industry, which is committed to the recovery of this traditional Cuban export.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The source cited the \u201cprojections\u201d of the Agroforestry Business Group (GAF), part of the Ministry of Agriculture, as \u201ceven higher, as it aims to reach 30,000 tons of the beans by 2030.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Specialists blame a variety of causes for the sector\u2019s decline: the incidence of pests, tropical cyclones that frequently devastate cultivated areas, coupled with the effects of climate change, the depopulation of rural areas, and technological obsolescence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, current production fails to meet domestic demands or fully exploit its export potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

On average, a 250-gram package of Cubita or Serrano coffee costs between 8 and 15 euros in any eurozone capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2024, global coffee prices reached a multi-year high, 38.8% higher than in 2023, driven primarily by inclement weather affecting the main producing countries, according to a <\/span>report<\/b><\/a>\u00a0by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization warns that prices could continue to rise in 2025 if the main producing regions experience further supply reductions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mountain depopulation<\/b><\/p>\n

In the Tercer Frente municipality, the country\u2019s main producer, strategies have been implemented to revitalize coffee production, according to <\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mart\u00ednez himself asserts that the problem lies not in the lack of coffee in the plants, but in the lack of labor for the harvest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Migration from rural to urban areas, where the former\u2019s infrastructure and logistical facilities have collapsed due to the crisis, has left coffee-growing settlements without skilled workers and has led to accelerated depopulation in the island\u2019s mountainous areas, which cover around 20% of the country\u2019s surface.<\/span><\/p>\n

The labor shortage in this and other productive sectors occurs \u201cin a context of decapitalization and low technological penetration,\u201d estimated Cuban academics Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos Espi\u00f1eira and <\/span>Omar Everleny P\u00e9rez Villanueva<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a <\/span>study<\/b><\/a>\u00a0published in 2024, both experts stated that \u201cas long as the reconstruction of the demographic and social fabric at the base of the country\u2019s human settlement system does not become a real policy priority, rural depopulation will continue to decisively mark the face of the current food crisis facing the population.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cohiba Atmosphere gourmet coffee with selected beans from the Escambray mountain range, designed to pair with the Cohiba cigar. On display at the market at 3rd and 70th Streets. Photo: AMD.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Technological interventions<\/b><\/p>\n

Faced with this labor and input shortage, coffee-growing strategists have turned to technological initiatives such as more resistant grafts and organic biofertilizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, international projects such as Prodecaf\u00e9 and M\u00e1sCaf\u00e9 have provided essential tools to producers, including machinery and transportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still premature, such efforts seek to increase yields and guarantee price ranges for the domestic market, according to the <\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i> feature article<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded more than a year ago, BioCubaCaffe S.A. leads initiatives to position Cuban coffee in international markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michele Curto, president of the entity, emphasizes that its focus includes ensuring an equitable ratio between exports and domestic consumption, in addition to ensuring the delivery of basic necessities to coffee-growing communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along these lines, the modules include peas, beans, rice, eggs, sugar, oil, and meat, at affordable prices for farmers, according to the executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company seeks to increase by 50% the value of a can of premium organic coffee, both the Robusta and Arabica varieties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, the entity has introduced innovations such as coffee aged in rum barrels and microfermentation to create premium products that are already present in more than 40 global markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Signs in Centro Habana on March 12, 2025. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Structural challenges<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite technological and commercial advances, structural problems persist that limit or hinder recovery in the short and medium term.<\/span><\/p>\n

The low prices for a can of coffee discourage producers. As Nidia Calunga, a coffee grower with 38 harvests to her name, told <\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i>, \u201cThere is no correspondence between the effort required to produce coffee and the income obtained.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, difficulties with late payments force many farmers to turn to the informal market.<\/span><\/p>\n

Infrastructure also represents a significant obstacle. The camps intended to house pickers are in deplorable condition.<\/span><\/p>\n

In mountainous regions like Sumidero, where up to 100,000 cans of coffee were once collected annually, workers are now barely commuting from urban areas. This situation increases operating costs and reduces efficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, bancarization in rural areas has had a very limited impact, and the lack of access to cash further complicates the harvesting and payment process for farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who can afford it invest our own financial resources, and that doesn\u2019t add up. Payment wasn\u2019t guaranteed in time to be made after the harvest for the camp heads,\u201d one farmer criticized in the <\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i> report, on condition of anonymity. \u201cIt\u2019s an open secret,\u201d he concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan calls for 355,060 cans of coffee, and 229,212 have been collected,\u201d stated Norlan Mor\u00e1n Rodr\u00edguez, deputy mayor for the Agri-Food Sector on the Tercer Frente Municipal Administration Council.<\/span><\/p>\n

The official complained about the shortage of inputs. There are only a few essentials, \u201csuch as sacks, machetes, and files; when they are available, they are often offered at high prices by MSMEs, which makes the work of producers even more difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The strategy presented in 2023 to President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel includes seven key actions to recover coffee production.<\/span><\/p>\n

These measures seek to balance domestic consumption with exports through international collaboration projects and advanced technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Italian coffee supplies are present in Havana\u2019s private sector. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An unfollowed lead<\/b><\/p>\n

Almost eight years ago, in June 2017, a report by the IPS news <\/span>agency<\/b><\/a> reported on the existence of two new biotechnology laboratories to produce high-quality seedlings, integrated into the coffee development program to increase exports.<\/span><\/p>\n

One laboratory was located in Jibacoa, in the central province of Villa Clara, and produced seedlings for the entire central region, while the other was located in the Tercer Frente, and its mission was to supply seedlings to state-owned enterprises in eastern Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are high-tech laboratories that will be responsible for producing seedlings through somatic embryogenesis \u2014 a method of propagation using cells taken from portions of coffee leaves \u2014 from mother plants with high genetic potential,\u201d explained Elexis Legr\u00e1, director of coffee, cocoa, and coconut for the state-owned Agri-Forestry Group.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Granma<\/span><\/i> article does not refer to these reproductive centers, and a cursory internet search revealed no updates.<\/span><\/p>\n