Cubans turn to casabe due to lack of bread in Holguín

Given the shortage of bread and food in Cuba, residents in several towns in the east of the island resort to cassava to alleviate hunger.

In Holguín, demand for this cassava-based food has grown due to a lack of flour to make bread, whose distribution has been seriously affected in recent weeks.

A cassava with a diameter of 20 or 30 cm can cost up to 50 pesos, they confirmed toCyberCuba residents in that province.

The sale takes place in the neighborhoods but also online, where advertisements that include casabe in food combos have increased.

Since last year Holguín, Granma and Las Tunas have resumed the consumption of this product that was made by the Cuban aborigines and whose consumption was limited to the end of the year holidays.

Casabe is a food that was made with cassava flour by the aboriginal communities that inhabited the island.

In 2023, Las Tunas intensified production because according to Wilmer Espinosa Vargas, president of the Elpidio Sosa credit and services cooperative (CCS), "cassava is a very noble production that adapts perfectly to these lands and that is why we experimented with seeds of different varieties." varieties. They all give good results and no matter how hard we try, we can't keep up with so much demand," he said.

He explained that in a large burén they make an average of 500 units each day, each one requires about 15 minutes to cook.

He added that cassava flour can widely replace wheat flour to produce sweets and breads intended to feed celiacs, hypertensives and diabetics.

Casabe has become one of the Cuban regime's alternatives to alleviate the deficit of wheat flour to make bread.

In Granma, the authorities hold workshops to "teach children how to prepare cassava" and "rescue culinary culture."

However, behind this cultural rescue is the regime's inability to guarantee the population's bread.