14ymedio, Havana, 29 January 2024 — Rain and planting delays are conspiring to keep tomatoes out of Cienfuegos’ produce markets. At least that is the excuse provided on Monday by local officials, who readily admitted that tomatoes destined for tourist hotels and specialized food service establishments are grown year round in the controlled climate conditions of the Guamuhaya mountains, guaranteeing their availablility. Meanwhile, everyone else will have to wait until February.
Jesús Negrín Capote, the province’s director of agriculture, told the digital newspaper 5 de Septiembre (Fifth of September) that, despite the “climatological slippage,” a lot of tomatoes managed to get planted, even more than in the previous campaign. Though production is expected to be ready for the second and third month of the year, he noted that crops are not immune to the weather, which can “play tricks.”
Negrín Capote acknowledged that the quality of the tomatoes was also affected by the sudden rains at year’s end because the planting, which was scheduled for September and October, happened late.
Tomatoes grown by private producers, or taken from the “back room” of government warehouses, are beginning to appear sporadically in local markets
Meanwhile, tomatoes grown by private producers, or taken from the “back room” of government warehouses, are b