Local leaders have proposed a “broad plan of visits” to persuade the farmers
14ymedio, Havana, 12 June 2024 — The authorities of Las Tunas have proposed to carry out a “wide plan of visits” to the farmers who refuse to deliver their agricultural products to the State. The contracts in the province, which should have ended in 2023, were completed in May by only 74% and, according to the official press, since the beginning of the year the progress to solve this situation has been “tiny.”
An article published this Wednesday by the local media Periódico 26 gave the measure of the situation: “In one way or another there are delays in all the municipalities, but those that make the least progress are Puerto Padre, Majibacoa and Jobabo, in which an extensive plan of visits to owners or usufructuaries [a form of leasing], both private and state, is imposed to expedite what should have been completed a long time ago.”
Of the total number of producers in the province – the figure is around 20,000 – only 16,326 have signed contracts with the State to deliver products this year. The refusal of the farmers, which the newspaper attributes to the “insufficient control of the real potential of livestock owners” and the lack of demand and dialogue of the institutions with the producers, has repercussions for several essential food industries.
For the dairy farmers, for example, the goal was to provide 25,931,800 liters in 2024, but so far they have only managed to get farmers to commit to delivering 22,024,253 liters, 85%. The most backward municipalities are those of Manatí and Jobabo.
The same goes for meat deliveries, which of the 5,263 tons per year projected, barely 4,074 were delivered
The same goes for meat deliveries, which of the 5,263 tons per year projected, ba