Miguel Díaz-Canel stated on Saturday to an audience of foreign communists in Havana that Cuba will not eat what is imported from abroad, but rather what the people are capable of producing.
In front of an audience of supporters who burst into applause, the leader presented agroecology as a solution to the most severe food crisis the Island has faced in decades, as part of his Government Program for economic and social development.
According to him, the program focuses on sovereignty and sustainability, which includes food production to achieve food sovereignty, "being aware that we will eat not what we import, but what we are capable of producing in the country."
"And you may tell me: 'But are you crazy? Now that you have less fuel, that you have fewer things, how are you going to achieve food sovereignty?'" he expressed, anticipating criticisms with a rhetorical question.
His response was to invoke "the effort and talent of the Cubans" and the application of agroecological techniques.
"And in light of the lack of products and fertilizers, we are applying agroecology and developing a program for agricultural development and food production that is more environmentally friendly and sustainable under our conditions," he emphasized.
The statement directly contradicts the reality faced by the population. Cuba imports between 70% and 80% of the food it consumes, spending around 2 billion dollars annually on external purchases, while domestic production has been in free fall for years.
According to the 2023 Statistical Yearbook of Cuba, pork production fell by 93.2%, rice by 59.1%—cumulatively losing 70% since 2018 and covering less than 11% of national demand—eggs by 43%, and milk by 37.6%. The official data confirms a severe food crisis that the government itself cannot hide.
Díaz-Canel himself admitted in June 2025: "We have not made the necessary investments in agriculture and food production." That same year, the regime acknowledged its mistakes in managing the economy without any real changes occurring. And in December 2024, the Communist Party recognized the failure of food production at its IX Plenary of the Central Committee.
The Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca was even more direct in admitting that the progress of Law 148 on Food Sovereignty is "far from what the people expect."
The crisis dramatically escalated in 2026 due to the energy collapse following the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3. The FAO warned in March 2026 that the lack of diesel prevents the harvesting of already planted crops, turning the agroecological proposal into a propaganda response to a real humanitarian emergency.
The human impact is devastating. 96.91% of the population has lost adequate access to food due to inflation and a decline in purchasing power. 25% of Cubans go to bed without dinner, and 29% of families have eliminated one meal a day.
A report from April 2026 revealed that five provinces are on the brink - Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, and Santiago de Cuba - in "critical levels of food survival."
While Díaz-Canel was receiving applause from foreign communists, The Economist Intelligence Unit projected a contraction of the Cuban GDP of 7.2% for 2026, the worst of 27 economies in the region, with a cumulative decline since 2019 reaching 23%.
The 80% of Cubans believe the current crisis is worse than the Special Period of the 1990s.
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