Business
Cuba poultry shortage? Regime imported near $300 million of U.S. chicken in 2022
The value of annual U.S. chicken exports to Cuba has almost doubled since 2018
February 12, 2023 1:26am
Updated: February 13, 2023 8:33am
Cuba is getting a lot of its poultry products from the United States and setting new importing records, according to a renowned economist.
“The year 2022 ended with two historical records in U.S. chicken meat exports to Cuba: the highest annual export value with just over 295 million USD and the record for monthly exports with a value of more than 33 million USD in December, ” wrote Cuban economist Pedro Monreal on his Twitter account.
1/3 The year 2022 ended with two historical records in exports of US chicken meat to Cuba: the highest annual export value with just over 295 million USD and the record for monthly exports with a value of more than 33 million USD in December
— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) February 10, 2023
"The value of annual chicken exports from the U.S. to Cuba has almost doubled since 2018... in January 2019 almost the same number of tons of chicken was imported as in December 2022,” the economist said.
2/3 The value of annual chicken exports from the US to Cuba has almost doubled since 2018, with the aggravating circumstance for the country's currencies that, with approx. half the cost, in January 2019 almost the same number of tons of chicken was imported as in December 2022
— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) February 10, 2023
"The value of the kg of U.S. chicken exported to Cuba in Dec. of 2022 (1.26 USD) remained at high levels during the second semester of 2022. The inability to produce chicken [in Cuba] is the "elephant in the room" of the [island's] national agricultural policy,” the economist's analysis says.
Chicken purchases represent 90% of all food purchases that the Cuban dictatorship made from the U.S. in 2022. That means the total $328.5 million is the highest in more than a decade.
