Recently the Australia-Cuba friendship society completed a successful campaign ‘From Australia to Cuba with Love’. During the campaign it became evident that people were not aware that there is a existing and long-standing United States blockade of Cuba. This has had serious effects on the Cuban people and must be stopped. Here is some information and photos from that campaign. – Ian Curr, 23 April 2022.
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Impacts on the Cuban Agriculture Sector
An area particularly hit by the embargo has been the agricultural sector. Lost revenue owing to the block on the export of goods and services, the additional costs resulting from the geographical relocation of trade, and other obstacles to the procurement of technologies and fuels have seriously impacted food production and supplies in Cuba, causing losses that amounted to $330,466 million between April and December 2020.
In November and December 2019, 12,399 hectares of rice could not be planted because fuel was unavailable. Consequently, 30,130 tons of rice were not produced for consumption. Similarly, more than 195,000 tons of food were not produced. In addition, more than 2 million litres of milk and 481 tons of meat were not produced, which adversely affected the diet of the Cuban people.
Being unable to export to the United States because of the embargo has produced an impact on Cuba’s agricultural sector reportedly amounting to $184 million. Of this figure, 84.3 per cent is attributed to the export potential of the Habanos company, while the rest, some $26.5 million, corresponds to potential exports of marabou charcoal, pineapples, honey, coffee and fresh produce destined mainly for cruise ships.
The United States is the world’s largest importer of bulk industrial honey. United States firms interested in acquiring Cuban honey are denied the required OFAC licence, so they cannot trade with the island. The United States market could absorb some 3,000 tons per year of this type of honey, which is very difficult to place on the European market. If this volume could be exported to the United States market, Cuba would gain an economic advantage of approximately $500,000, 10 per cent more than that derived from the European market, through better prices, lower freight costs and more favourable delivery conditions.
The United States market is among the five largest in the world for ground and whole bean roasted coffee. Cuban coffee, thanks to its quality, could meet a large part of the United States market demand, but, as in the case of honey, United States companies interested in importing it are denied an OFAC licence.
Source: undocs.org/en/A/75/81 and undocs.org/en/A/75/81/Add.1