US chicken exports to Cuba fall for the third consecutive month

US chicken exports to Cuba fell for the third consecutive month, with April figures being the lowest since October 2022.

Economist Pedro Monreal stated that the value of monthly chicken exports from the US to Cuba in April 2023 fell 4.4% compared to March, but the monthly contraction was greater in the tons exported with a drop of 14.8%. .

They are the lowest levels sinceOctober of last year, when the country registered only 15,980 tons of chicken sent to Cuba, valued at 20.54 million dollars, figures that in turn were the second lowest of that year.

In a Twitter thread the expert explains – based on the monthly reports of theAgriculture department American – that among the countries that reported the island's trading partners until May 4 (Paraguay, the United States, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and Brazil), the United States is, by a wide margin, the largest supplier of chicken meat to Cuba.

Among the other five partners, it is notable that Brazilian exports plummeted 47.9% in April.

Monreal analyzed that the value of the kilogram of American chicken exported to Cuba in April 2023 (1.09 USD) was 12.4% higher than that of the previous month (0.97 USD), and considered that this increase "probably limited the Cuban purchases".

This is despite the fact that the prices at which the Cuban regime sells chicken to the population in stores in Freely Convertible Currency are around 8 dollars per kilogram. In additionthe island's MSMEs They sell a 15-kilogram box of chicken for 10,000 Cuban pesos.

"Chicken exports from the US to Cuba in April 2023 – the main imported meat – were approximately 50% of the December 2022 level and according to reported data, there has been no replacement in other countries," he said.

Last year Cubapurchases of food and agricultural products from Cuba to companies from the United States totaled $328.5 million during 2022, which marked the largest increase in commercial operations between both countries in the last decade, according to official figures.

This Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Cabel received Mark Baum, vice president of the US Food Industry Association, accompanied by Jorge Ignacio Fernández, president of the Hope for Cuba Foundation, to talk about "business potentials." "between both countries, in the midst of the serious crisis that the island is going through.