Díaz-Canel recognizes the importance of guaranteeing better access to food in Cuba

Havana, Jul 6 (EFE).- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged this Saturday at the end of the VIII plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one) that Better access to food must be guaranteed in the midst of the “complex” situation from the Caribbean island.

Díaz-Canel, who is also first secretary of the central committee of the communist political party, indicated that “Food production and self-sufficiency are tasks of the first order in which the entire population must participate”according to a report by state television.

The PCC meeting was held in Havana behind closed doors without any appearances before the media and also served to analyze the economic situation of the country, which has been mired in a serious crisis for four years.

In this regard, Díaz-Canel called for “fighting for a healthy and efficient economy that guarantees social justice and the highest possible level of well-being for the population.”

“The people demand results and we owe it to the people,” he said.

The Cuban president himself stated last March in a meeting with officials from the Ministry of the Food Industry that Families spend “more than 70%” of their income on buying food.

This rate reflects, among other things, the sharp rise in food prices in Cuba in recent years, due to the decline in national production and the depreciation of the national currency in the informal market.

According to the United Nations, Cuba imports 80% of what it consumesThe Government has also indicated that it spends more than 2 billion euros a year on importing from abroad the products that it includes, heavily subsidized, in the ration book.

Food production and the fight once morest corruption were the main topics of the agenda of the 8th plenary session held half a year following the announcement of the first major adjustment plan – which included a 400% increase in fuel prices and increases in public services such as water and electricity – and shortly before the presentation of the second major package, which includes budget cuts.

The pandemic, the tightening of US sanctions and failed economic and monetary policies have aggravated the structural problems of the Cuban economy over the past four years.

The crisis is reflected in the streets in shortages of basic necessities (food, medicine and fuel), prolonged daily power outages, rampant inflation, lack of cash and increasing dollarization.

The subsequent social discontent has been evident in some protests – among which those of July 11, 2021 stand out – and an unprecedented wave of migration.

The PCC Central Committee, the party’s highest governing body, currently has 110 members, and its political bureau – the core of party power – has 14 members, three of them women.