Sweet potato bread arrives in Santiago de Cuba

In times of crisis and flour shortage, breads made with the famous “extenders” such as cassava, pumpkin or sweet potato flourish in Cuba.

This last tuber has been used in Santiago de Cuba to make the bread dough that the State sells rationed through the supply book.

Its flavor, texture and aroma were graphically captured in the expression of a young man from Santiago who tasted the product while being filmed by a social media user.

The video, shared onTiktok by user Jesús from Cuba revealed the grimace of disgust that appeared on the face of the young man who tried the sweet potato bread.

Among humorous comments, parodying the terminology of haute cuisine, the young people stated that the sweet potato bread was “worthy of a Master Chef,” and that they were “discovering the unique flavors” of Cuba.

Committed for decades to being the main supplier and distributor of food for the population, the Cuban State - governed by a totalitarian communist regime - is now responsible for the flour shortage in the country.

Hence, it promotes the use of so-called "extenders" in the network of state bakeries under its control, and is solely and directly responsible for the quality of the bread, as well as for the general diet of Cubans.

"For approximately a year the company has not received flour from the national balance because it is an imported product and there is difficulty in its distribution, and the strategy that we have found is to go to other economic resources (Mypimes, for example)", he recently detailedRaúl Valdés Mantecón, director of the Cuban Bread Company in Cienfuegos.

It is not the first time that the population has seen sweet potato bread arrive at the wineries. "It gets hard, it gets tight and it comes apart", a man from Guantanamo described in May 2017 about the quality of the sweet potato bread that was sold over the counter in the city.

In May 2022, the Institute of Tropical Food Research (INIVIT) of Villa Clarapromoted the use of flour to produce bread and pizza, according to a report from official media.

“You can replace one hundred percent of the wheat flour with cassava flour to make the pancake, you have seen it here,” he told the telecenter.Telecubanacanan official whose name was not specified in the report.

The man also added that you can also replace 50 percent of the wheat flour with cassava flour to make bread and “70 percent to make pizza.”

According to the report, before processing the tuber to make flour for human consumption, it must be dried because it is mostly composed of water.

“How many products can be made from cassava flour and one problem we have is that we are depending on the wheat that is imported for everything we are talking about!” stressed the interviewee.

From sweet potato and cassava, the "continuity" of the rulerMiguel Diaz-Canel has gone torecently promote pumpkin bread, a "luxury" that in some provincesOnly those under 14 years old can taste it..

The ironic video of Jesús de Cuba does not fail to reflect a lacerating reality for Cubans, who see the "social contract" that the supply book meant being dismantled, and hear paunchy leaders talk about the elimination of “excessive subsidies and undue gratuities.” , while the number of children, elderly and vulnerable people at risk of "food insecurity" increases.