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Cuba says it spent $9.5M to update coffee industry

Sandokan

Sandokan

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Cuba says it spent $9.5M to update coffee industry, but low harvest numbers force it to import
Cuba says it spent $9.5M to update coffee industry, but low harvest numbers force it to import - The Washington Post

By Associated Press, Thursday, April 7, 7:14 PM

HAVANA — Cuba has spent $9.5 million the past five years to modernize coffee production, but meager harvests mean this java-loving nation must still import to cover domestic consumption, the director of the state-run coffee company said Thursday.

The money went toward improving coffee mills, roasters and packaging in an effort to produce the 18,000 tons needed to meet local demand, said Antonio Aleman, director of the company, Cubacafe.

Cuba's annual coffee harvest currently stands at 6,000 tons, and Aleman confirmed the island is buying 12,000 tons of beans to make up the shortfall.
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Cuba coffee beans production in 1958 reached 43,600 MT and was able to export 11,200 MT even with a guerrilla war going on in in the main coffee growing area. In 2010 the coffee production reached only 5,500 MT. The coffee production keep going down, with a huge 87.4% reduction compare to 1958.

The island is an excellent example of how a very successful nation in the western hemisphere was destroyed by Castroism in the 20th century. There are so few positive things to say about communist dictatorships like Cuba, that leftists everywhere have no choice but to point out flaws in other countries to keep some of their self-respect.
 
Sandokan said:
Cuba coffee beans production in 1958 reached 43,600 MT and was able to export 11,200 MT even with a guerrilla war going on in in the main coffee growing area. In 2010 the coffee production reached only 5,500 MT. The coffee production keep going down, with a huge 87.4% reduction compare to 1958.

The island is an excellent example of how a very successful nation in the western hemisphere was destroyed by Castroism in the 20th century. There are so few positive things to say about communist dictatorships like Cuba, that leftists everywhere have no choice but to point out flaws in other countries to keep some of their self-respect.
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My god. Communism destroys coffee?

Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?
 
Deuce said:
My god. Communism destroys coffee?

Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?
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Yeah? What do you plan on doing about it?
 
Deuce said:
My god. Communism destroys coffee?

Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?
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Before 1959 Cuba used to produce some of the finest Arabic Coffee in the world. Nowadays Cubans are allocated through the ration book only 4 ounces of coffee a month per person, and the coffee is mixed with peas to increase the yield, which in turn reduce the quality of the coffee. What an inept regime, it destroys everything it touch’s. The brothers’ rule is the root of the problem. The best way to solve a problem is to attack the root of it.
 
As for coffee production, Castro promised in the 1960s that in few years Cuba would export hundreds of thousands of bags to everyone, but what took place was a steady decline of its production and for the last 40 years it has not been enough even to satisfy domestic consumption reason why the aromatic grain is mixed with kidney beans and other imported grains to supply it to the consumers, in small quantities established in a ration book dating from 1962, in order to control the supply of basic foodstuffs to the population.
 
“By 1970, Havana will be completely self-sufficient with the coffee we are going to plant this year in Havana Province, some 100 million plants… This coffee will be planted as a secondary crop, that is, it will be planted in the same areas as the fruit trees. That will happen in only two more years.” Castro Speech, January 6, 1967.

The Havana belt consisted of a plan that was intended to convert the environs around the capital into a gigantic coffee plantation with the planting of the coffee variety Caturra, which has the capacity to grow under full sun. Fidel did not take into consideration that for the growth of this variety, neither the climatic conditions associated with the height, nor the soils were adequate in Havana’s province. The resounding failure of the coffee plan caused a useless waste of economic resources and great administrative corruption. Forty-three years after that speech, the island lacks not only coffee but everything.
 
Coffee is quite possible one of the most unprofitable crops there are. Why Cuba even bothers to grow it is beyond me. The majority of coffee producers are 3rd world impoverished nations with little development opportunities. Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala etc. It is a crop that is underpaid and then overcharged.
 
In the early 2000s, coffee prices worldwide collapsed. Farmers here in Kenya uprooted mature coffee to plant other cash crops. That could have something to do with the MT harvested in 2010. Despite the recovery of coffee prices (in the past couple years), farmers here remain distant from the crop. Those who have kept it have not returned to proper maintenance, while those who uprooted or intercropped trees to dominate the plot have not converted back at all. It seems as if people are actually angry with the coffee, because of what the price crash did to them, and they will be slow to take care of it once again.

I despise Castro's regime, but the global price crash of ~2000 - ~2009 should be considered. The numbers from the 90s until now would help clarify that factor.
 
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Cuba, what a joke.
 
Sandokan said:
Cuba coffee beans production in 1958 reached 43,600 MT and was able to export 11,200 MT even with a guerrilla war going on in in the main coffee growing area. In 2010 the coffee production reached only 5,500 MT. The coffee production keep going down, with a huge 87.4% reduction compare to 1958.

The island is an excellent example of how a very successful nation in the western hemisphere was destroyed by Castroism in the 20th century. There are so few positive things to say about communist dictatorships like Cuba, that leftists everywhere have no choice but to point out flaws in other countries to keep some of their self-respect.
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Just for information. Cuba has the smallest carbon footprint per capita in the world. It also is reputed to have the world's best medical care. Most of Cuba's problems are related to US Embargo against the country for the last 4 decades.
 
DaveFagan said:
Just for information. Cuba has the smallest carbon footprint per capita in the world.
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Poverty will do that for you. That's why all of the political efforts to reduce our carbon footprint involve increasing poverty.
 
Viktyr Korimir said:
Poverty will do that for you. That's why all of the political efforts to reduce our carbon footprint involve increasing poverty.
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An oversimplication at best. An inaccurate conclusion as well. Poverty may be a factor, but lifestyle is defined by the word "style." I repeat that the embargo by the USA against Cuba for over four decades has caused Cuba great distress. Just because they are anti big Corporate. They're all poor, but are probably unaware of that. Perhaps that is equality.
 
Here we go before Cuba was awesome! Extreme poverty! Lack of water and electricity! No health care or education! Awesome!
After revolution hell hole!
Kinda hard to trade and produce you know when you have an embargo implanted on you... Just you know a bit of common sense...
 
DaveFagan said:
An oversimplication at best. An inaccurate conclusion as well. Poverty may be a factor, but lifestyle is defined by the word "style." I repeat that the embargo by the USA against Cuba for over four decades has caused Cuba great distress. Just because they are anti big Corporate. They're all poor, but are probably unaware of that. Perhaps that is equality.
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Another Castro brothers regime great success story. The import of coffee by the regime is equivalent to the import of sugar, an unthinkable thing to happen 51 years ago. The destruction of the island economy, is not cause by the embargo, is due to the Castro brothers dictatorship, corruption and mismanagement.
 
And here I thought for sure this story was going to be that the Cubans found that the coffee was much better if you use clean water.

Oh that's right that was Mexico.
 
Sandokan said:
Another Castro brothers regime great success story. The import of coffee by the regime is equivalent to the import of sugar, an unthinkable thing to happen 51 years ago. The destruction of the island economy, is not cause by the embargo, is due to the Castro brothers dictatorship, corruption and mismanagement.
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Have another big glass of the kool-aid. No thinking required. I know you're joking because only GWturdforbrains could be that misinformed,.. Nice try though.
 
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