Cuba’s agricultural crisis raises fears of malnutrition

If you’re looking for a traditional lunch in Havana, a good option is to head to a local restaurant to order frijoles a la Cubana, a local dish made with black beans, peppers, onions, and a variety of Caribbean spices, cooked together in a large pot. But while such a meal perfectly encapsulates the flavors of Cuba, there’s a good chance that, if ordering in Havana, the ingredients won’t have been grown on the island.

That’s partly because Cuba’s agricultural production has fallen by about 35 percent since 2019, according to official figures, prompting the country’s economy minister, Alejandro Gil, to warn that almost all of Cuba’s basic food necessities now depend on imports.

In a country that lacks the purchasing power to buy from abroad given its meager exports, such a decline is alarming to say the least.

Even sugar production, a commodity once used as propaganda by Fidel Castro’s government to portray the island as prosperous — and which remains a cornerstone of Cuban exports — has seen a dramatic 40-percent drop in the last two harvests. 

So what is driving the crisis?

During a session of the National Assembly, Cuba’s single-party and unicameral parliament, Speaker Esteban Lazo Hernández attributed the low yields to the country’s acute shortages of fuel, fertilizer, and herbicides. 

Cuba is indeed suffering from energy shortages. Ninety-five percent of its...