[NYTr] Cuba: Food Production, Import News Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:24:40 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit AP via San Diego Union-Tribune - Jun 30, 2007 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070630-1125-feedingcuba.html Cuba, facing drop in food production, pays farmers and raises prices for milk and meat By Anita Snow ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA b Cuba is repaying debts to farmers and promising higher prices for milk and meat in an attempt to increase flagging food production in a communist society that depends on the state for most of what it eats. It's trying to head off a crisis in its food system: Production dropped 7 percent last year, imports are becoming more expensive and consumers complain their tiny government salaries don't allow them to buy more than a few items a month at supply-and-demand farmers markets. Finance and Prices Minister Georgina Barreiro said Friday that the state had paid off $23 million worth of debts to the small farmers and cooperatives that grow two-thirds of the island's fruits and vegetables, and renegotiated debts worth $35 million more. bThese debts never should have accumulated,b Barreiro told a National Assembly session headed by Acting President Raul Castro. Food production is a highly sensitive issue in Cuba, where shortages of everything from meat to potatoes were common after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its generous subsidies. Food is more plentiful today, but Cubans still complain that most of the vegetables and fruits sold by private producers are too expensive. Cuban officials have been unusually candid about the problem in recent weeks, with Vice President Carlos Lage complaining to municipal leaders that food bproduction is insufficient and commercialization is deficient.b The government in recent weeks has instituted a new billing and payment system in which banks must pay producers immediately. Lawmaker Orlando Lugo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers, said more than half of Cuba's 3,500 cooperatives are using the new system or are about to start. bThe producers are in much better spirits,b he said at Friday's session. Meanwhile, the ministries of agriculture and sugar, along with provincial and municipal leaders, have been ordered to create tracking systems to make sure payments to the small farmers and cooperatives don't fall behind again. And parliament on Friday agreed to pay producers 2 1/2 times more for milk and meat included in the island's heavily subsidized ration program and in meals provided at similarly low-cost workplace cafeterias, schools, hospitals and community centers. The prices consumers pay will remain the same. The cooperatives and small farming enterprises were created in 1993 when the government restructured its centralized food system, breaking up big state farms into smaller units owned and managed by workers. Smaller parcels went to individual farmers. Less than 15 years later, more than 150,000 individual farmers and agriculture cooperatives now produce two-thirds of the country's food using just a third of the island's workable land. State farms work the rest. After meeting state quotas, the farmers can sell the rest of their goods at farmers markets. Cuba has more than 300 markets, including about 50 in Havana. But Cuba is a long way from becoming self-sustaining. The country spends $1.6 billion a year importing food, about a third of it from the U.S. Even 82 percent of the food sold at subsidized prices on the ration system is imported. *** Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Resolves Arrears Payment to Farmers Havana, Jun 29 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Finance and Price Minister Georgina Barreiro declared on Friday that the problem of arrears in payment to agricultural producers was resolved, a situation that had generated distrust in state mechanisms, she explained. In the presence of Cuban First Vice president Raul Castro, the minister presented a report on the issue to the plenary of the National Assembly of PeopleB4s Power (parliament) that was approved unanimously. She said the established bank and financial mechanisms, together with the controls that have been introduced and consolidated at all levels, allow guaranteeing this problem is solved. The minister explained that national collecting and payment groups were created in the Agriculture and Sugar Ministries to assess behavior of debts, and keep weekly control on arrear payments. New financial proceedings, payment by invoice, and a rotary fund to pay producers have been also adopted, allowing payments guaranteed on the dates agreed. The Finance and Price Ministry also established a proceedure to pay producers without lands or not associated with cattle raising cooperatives. *** Granma Daily - Jun 26, 2007 http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art104.html Food Distribution in Cuba Discussed in Parliament ALBERTO NUCEZ With the general increase in the price of food products this year on the international markets, the cost of the basic food supply (family basket) provided by the Cuban government to its entire population at subsidized prices, will be around one billion US dollars. That reality and the complexity involved in transporting the products to each distribution point will require that the Cuban government and in particular the Ministry of Internal Commerce, achieve a higher level of organization and efficiency. Marino Murillo, the Minister of Internal Commerce, described the situation Monday during an exchange with members of the parliamentary Population Services Commission. Murillo reviewed the state of the recovery program in progress involving warehouses of the Wholesale Food Distribution Entity, and other interests of this sector. The actions are advancing, he said, with the goal to reach a capability of some 200,000 tons of product stored in optimal conditions by the end of the year (equivalent to a quarter of the storage capacity at all facilities). But Murillo also noted that there are delays and deficiencies in territories including Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Matanzas. Regarding health and safety services to workers, it was informed that several protective devices like belts and straps, as well as proper shoes, were bought to be provided to the workers of installations requiring them. The members of parliament also heard about the intentions to replace old trucks used for food distribution and which are inefficient in their use of fuel. The committee members heard from the executives of CIMEX Corporation, who reported about the most important results of that entity during the first semester of 2007, as well as the procedures implemented to deal with crime, corruption and lack of discipline. Victor Gaute, a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party called for dealing energetically with "irregularities", because apart from the quantitative damage, they do tremendous moral damage to the collective. ef ccs iom ucl PL-48 * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================