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Food supplies in Cuba – state-controlled farming versus the free market |
Cahiers Agricultures. Volume 6, Number 4, 275, Juillet-Août 1997, Synthèse
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 Résumé
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Author(s) : Denise Douzant Rosenfeld |
Summary : We analyse the Cuban agricultural transition in terms of the collapse of COMECON, which forced Cuba to restructure its economy in two phases:
– the “special period” (1989-1993) when the socialist production and food supply model collapsed, involving failure of the food self-sufficiency plan and food shortages;
– the new economic policy (beginning in 1993), with the dismantling of state farms and reopening of free marketplaces. The latter situation highlights questions concerning changes in production systems, the role of the state, produ-cers’ responses, and especially new cooperatives – which continue functioning as they did when agriculture was state controlled.
The special period began in 1989, when imports to Cuba were stalled – which created a difficult situation as the country depended on imports to meet its food supply (50%) and energy (95%) needs. The crippled transportation situation, and the difficult switch to manual labour and draught animals for farm work undermined the production and food supply model that had long been considered superior.
The low Cuban agricultural diversification and output levels could be explained by the lack of flexibility of the plan. Land use practices were also important, as they favoured sugarcane and dairy farming, but only 12% of the overall area was used for food cropping (Fig. 1). Intensive livestock production, agrifood complexes and mechanized cultivation were thus promoted, as part of an original agrarian farming structure: the state-farming sector soon dominated with the appearance of very large-scale farms (75% of all farmland, with 20,000 ha/farm on average in 1988); private smallholdings were progressively marginalized (14% of all farmland, with around 10 ha/farm on average); and farm production cooperatives included slightly less than half of all formerly private farms (11% of all farmland, around 600 ha/farm). In La Havana province, traditionally the “food bowl” for the capital city , small-scale farmers still had a relatively important status with respect to vegetable production (Fig. 2) .
Production objectives for each farm were set out in the general plan. Collection of harvested food crops was monopolized by Acopio state, which supplied urban markets. Production, collection and distribution were closely linked and under state control. Deficiencies at any level had an impact at all other levels. Traditional marketing problems substantially worsened the effects of the farming production crisis.
The results of the food self-sufficiency plan, launched as a military operation in the fall of 1989, were unsatisfactory, despite the good results in 1992 (Table 1) . Food shortages affected large cities, and the possibility of boosting output was hindered by the state-farm system. The failure of the food self-sufficiency plan prompted the reform policies.
The new economic policy (beginning in 1993) is based on reopening the country to international trade to boost the economy (which had suffered a 35% GDP loss), on decontrolling the dollar to stall the rapid black market expansion, and on authorizing private work to solve the unemployment problem. Two reforms concerning food supplies were implemented successively.
In 1993, the state farms were quickly dismantled (Table 2) . It is hoped that the new UBPC cooperatives will stimulate production, but this has not yet occurred, especially with respect to sugarcane.
In 1994, free farm markets were opened, which solved the food shortage problem, but did not overcome the black market problem. The impact of the new markets is analysed relative to different types of producers. Farmers’ initiatives are still being closely supervised. Shortages are still a way of life in Cuba. |
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