Farmer in Cuba: "To make a dollar I have to sell 17 liters of milk"

Jose Antonio Casimiro, owner in Sancti Spiritus of the Middle Farm and one of the most renowned agricultural producers in Cuba, denounced what he describes as "humiliating prices" for ranchers on the island, this in the midst of a growing food crisis in the country.

Casimiro believes that what “is missing are fair laws” that bring joy and encourage production in Cuba.

“The price of cattle, the price of milk, everything is almost humiliating for the small farmer. There is no way to make any profit out of this. It doesn't matter if it's fattening a bull to sell it or selling milk for 20 pesos," he explained at the beginning of an interview.published in social networks.

“I can tell you thatTo make a dollar I have to sell about 17 liters of milk. Where do you find milk with that value?"Where in the world?" he questioned, and also pointed out that at that priceYou have to add the cost of taking the milk to the delivery point, which costs about 500 pesos.

He calculated that just to cover the cost of 500 pesos for transportation, he would have to invest the money equivalent to 25 liters of milk sold to the State (at 20 pesos per liter).

“Where is the profitability?” he asks.

Casimiro gave the example of a bull weighing almost a thousand pounds that after being valued at 14 pesos a pound, was the equivalent of about 47 dollars.

“After I did all the math, that bull is worth less than a 47-pound piglet,” he complained.

Added to this are other related expenses: the tractor to transport the animal, 7 thousand pesos for a can of oil, a thousand pesos in taxes and about seven trips between papers and transit passes.

“If I had thrown the bull down a ravine so that the ringworms could eat it, it would have given me more profits.”, he ironized, while pointing out that "buying an eight-ounce container of pressed meat in a store, which can be from the bull's eggs or the tongue, can cost 500 pesos."

“This way it is not possible to develop livestock or agriculture or anything”, concluded Jose Antonio Casimiro, who says that for 30 years he has seen the same thing as always: bureaucracy and lack of serious decisions, obstacles that hamper any possibility of progress.

“There is something that has been broken for so long, since I have been here… and I do not see that necessary light,” he concluded.

In 2021, the Cuban government published 63 measures that would supposedly stimulate agricultural production, measures that, like so many other attempts, have failed.

José Antonio Casimiro's statements take place a few days after the Cuban government begins a survey of the state and private livestock mass, a process by which, as of February 15, it isThe sale and purchase of livestock between individuals on the island is paralyzed.

Starting March 1, Agriculture will carry out a special control action, with limited use, to evaluate the current situation of the livestock sector in Cuba. Those who need to sell their livestock during this period must do so to state entities, with prior authorization.