Related videos:
The independent observatory Food Monitor Program (FMP) submitted a contribution to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, directly accusing GAESA of exacerbating the food crisis in Cuba through its monopoly on foreign currency, imports, and food distribution chains.
The document, prepared in response to a UN call regarding the concentration of corporate power in global food systems, points out that GAESA —the business conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR)— has turned access to food into a mechanism for currency extraction.
"The rent-seeking logic of the military elite in Cuba hinders the increase of national production in favor of food imports," affirms FMP in the report.
According to the organization, GAESA has "platformized" access to food, using the Cuban diaspora as a captive market, while the monopoly on imports and distribution leaves citizens without access to basic products, "especially when these are sold in currencies that are inaccessible to many Cubans."
The report warns that hunger is worsening in Cuba: 96% of Cubans have lost their ability to acquire food, according to the 2024 Food Security Survey by FMP, which consulted 2,703 households.
The national food production has fallen 67% in the last five years, while Cuba imports about 80% of what it consumes.
Companies under the direction of GAESA, such as Flora y Fauna S.A., centralize and restrict popular access to food natural resources—meat, seafood, and charcoal—which the company itself exports in competitive markets, according to the document.
The report also includes testimonies from Cuban producers who describe their exclusion from decisions regarding their own activities: "It is not fair that we, who live and work the land, do not have control over what we produce, how we do it, or to whom we sell it."
Another testimony collected by FMP reflects the same frustration: "Peasant organizations have had their space in some agricultural policy discussions, but in the end, it seems that decisions come from above and we are just there to take up space."
Small private entrepreneurs face price caps, tax increases, import restrictions, and provincial bureaucracy that hinders their development, according to the organization.
FMP evaluates the Law on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security (Law SAN, No. 148/2022) and the "63 measures to boost agriculture" as legitimizing documents lacking real participation from the stakeholders in the food system.
The observatory also warns that GAESA concentrates billions while the Cuban people suffer from shortages, and that there are no independent judicial mechanisms capable of processing claims against the military conglomerate.
"In Cuba, there is no separation of executive and legislative powers, which means that the latter acts as a legal support and legitimizing apparatus for official policies," the report states.
The 2025 National Food Security Survey by FMP, with 2,513 valid responses, revealed that 33.9% of households had at least one member who went to bed hungry in the last 30 days, compared to the 24.6% recorded in 2024, highlighting a sustained deterioration that the organization directly attributes to the centralized control model imposed by the Cuban dictatorship.
Filed under: