In Cuba, more than 25,000 cows have died from malnutrition so far this year

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More than 25,000 cattle died from malnutrition in Cuba between January and July of this year, which affected the production of meat and milk according to official media and forced the island to increase its imports. Only Camagüey registered in the first semester of 2020 the death of 30,000 cows, more than 17,000 cows due to malnutrition and a decrease of approximately 30% in milk production. In the same period, Pinar del Río failed to comply with the meat production plan due to the low weight of the animals. In Las Tunas , almost 7,000 cattle had been lost for the same cause until last May, 2,593 more than in the same period of 2019.

Before Fidel Castro came to power, in the 1950s, Cuba had more than 6 million head of cattle, but in 2015 there were only just over 4 million. Current numbers continue to show dismal results. In the case of Camagüey, according to the official press, of the 161,449 cows of reproductive age, less than half are being milked, so less than 75 million liters of milk have been delivered, instead of the 88 million expected. In the case of Camagüey, according to the official press, of the 161,449 cows of reproductive age, less than half are being milked

A depressed national production of dairy products supplies the stores in Cuban pesos and in CUC, but the large volume of milk, cheese and meat sold in the country is imported, especially from Uruguay and is mainly destined for the tourism sector and foreign exchange trades. As for red meat , Cuba imports it from Chile, Paraguay and Colombia. It is Chile's third largest customer for beef, behind China and Canada. In the South American country, it spent almost 2 million dollars on imports in the first half of 2019.

It is striking that Cuba having good relations with Nicaragua, a country considered the largest dairy exporter in Central America, with 5.5 million head of cattle in 2019, there are only good commercial intentions in this sector between the two nations. Nicaragua announced in 2018 that it would bet on new destinations such as the Dominican Republic and Cuba in search of potential buyers of powdered milk, cheese and other dairy products. However, the project did not go ahead due to the inefficient payment system in Havana, Zacarías Mondragón, general manager of Industrias Delmor, told El Nuevo Diario in 2015. To pay, the island uses a bill of exchange backed by the National Bank of Cuba, he specified, "but to make it effective we had to wait six months; companies need cash."