14ymedio, Havana, 10 January 2024 — The Cuban State will pay more money to farmers this year for every quintal (220 pounds) of potato it buys, a measure whose real benefit – in light of inflation and the difficulty of obtaining agricultural inputs – is difficult to calculate. What will remain stable in 2024, according to the resolution of the Ministry of Agriculture published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette, is the price of potatoes in the retail market, which will continue to cost 11 pesos per pound.
Potatoes harvested with national seed will be paid at 1,204 pesos per quintal (26,175 pesos per ton), while the one grown with imported seed will cost 839 pesos per quintal (18,240 pesos per ton), the authorities reported. The cause: “the increase in prices of the essential inputs for potato production.”
The State cannot afford the luxury of generating “losses” or granting subsidies to producers
The State cannot afford the luxury of generating “losses” or granting subsidies to producers, it adds, so it empowers the Ministry to modify the prices which Acopio – the State Procurement and Distribution Agency – pays for food from the farmers. “The margin for the wholesale marketing of the potato will be shared between the parties by mutual agreement,” says the resolution, repeating the measure of past years.
This Wednesday, t