Díaz-Canel falls off the hook: "Cubans spend a large part of their salary on food"

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called for intensifying agri-food production and, in an act of apparent naivety, stated that "Cubans spend a large part of their salary on food."

As if since the implementation of the so-called Ordering Task on January 1, 2021, Cuban families had not denounced the low access to basic foods and low salaries, the president said that economic actors must be integrated to strengthen local agri-food systems .

At the annual balance meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture, he expressed that "this year we are called to change the economic situation of the country", since "Cubans spend a large percentage of their salary only on food that they pay at high prices," he cited. the official newspaperGranma.

He considered that it should be produced withown solutions and get the most out of to the financing, although low, provided by government agencies for production.

"If there is no foreign currency to obtain all the inputs, we have to look for variants," Díaz-Canel commented.

In this regard, he argued with agroecological potato production, which "with national seed and without technological package, yields ten tons per hectare." A pound of that potato sells for 90 pesos at some agricultural fairs on the island, where the minimum wage does not exceed 3,000 pesos.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz affirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture is an organization that directly impacts the quality of life of the people.

Last yearDíaz-Canel promised that food prices would decrease when agricultural production increased: "When we have more production we can lower prices and salaries can have greater purchasing power," he stated.

Months earlier he had recognized the ineffectiveProduction system on the island, where "there is no food, no livestock, no fish": The problem is that we have three laws: we have a Food Sovereignty Law, and there is no food; We are going to approve a Livestock Development Law, and there are no livestock; and we have a Fishing Law, and there is no fish, he admitted.

Currently, the salary that Cubans receive is almost not enough in the context of accelerated inflation in the country. A carton of 30 eggs can cost 3,000 pesos, more than a monthly minimum wage.