The Government of Cuba, through the Ministry of Food Industry, has recognized that, due to the shortage of wheat flour, it will not be able to guarantee the bread offered to the population through the supply booklet until the end of March.
"In the next few days, bread production will be seriously affected in every territory, due to the instability in the supply of raw materials," explained the commercial director of Empresa de Molineria (the state semolina producing company), Zaily Pérez Hernández, quoted by the official Cubadebate website.
The island imports approximately 80% of the products it consumes.
And in recent years it has signed agreements with allied countries, such as Russia, to guarantee the entry of wheat flour to make bread, a staple of the Cuban diet.
The Caribbean country has five mills for processing grain: three in Havana, one in Santiago de Cuba (east) and another in Cienfuegos (southeast).
At the moment the latter is the only one in operation and produces only 250 tons of flour per day.
According to Cubadebate, Cuba needs 20 thousand tons per month just to produce bread for the regulated family basket.
The crisis with bread distribution coincides with the return of blackouts due to fuel shortages in the last two months.
The state company Unión Eléctrica (Une) estimated that yesterday there were simultaneous power cuts in almost 32% of the island in the afternoon and evening hours, times of highest consumption.
All this at a time when the Caribbean jewel is hit by a serious economic recession, accentuated in recent years not only by US sanctions, but also by the pandemic.
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