While the Cuban people are suffering through massive food and fuel shortages, the communist Castro dictatorship is focusing its resources on exporting the little food the socialist economy can produce. Tons of mangoes are rotting in Cuba due in port to the regime’s inability to find enough gas to fuel trucks for transportation.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
The Cuban government will begin exporting fresh mangoes cultivated in Cienfuegos to Russia, while tons of the fruit rots in Guantánamo without being utilized.
According to a report broadcast by Cuban Television, the Cítrico Arimao company, located in the province of Cienfuegos, is the only one dedicated to exporting mangoes. Out of the 900 hectares of mango cultivation in that province, 35 are certified for planting and monitored under strict sanitary requirements to meet European market standards.
“We started exporting to the French market, and in the second week of June, we will begin for the first time with the Russian market, at prices higher than what we currently achieve in the other European market,” said Isec Tellería Abreu, one of the company’s deputy directors based in the town of Cumanayagua.
[…]
Meanwhile, as the regime expands its businesses with Russia, tons of mangoes in Guantánamo are rotting due to the lack of management, resources, contracting, transportation, and marketing, as reported by state-run media journalist Miguel Reyes on his Facebook profile.
“These are images of four farmers from different municipalities in Guantánamo, whose tons of mangoes are being lost due to lack of management, resources, contracting, transportation, and marketing. Two of them belong to the CCS Armando Barrero, from Macambo in San Antonio del Sur. The third and fourth ones reside in Cajobabo and San Ignacio, in the town of Imías,” said Reyes along with photos of the spoiled fruit.
The corruption, mismanagement of resources, ineptness, and the singular focus on generating revenue for the State while the people are left to fend for themselves has been the hallmark of Cuba’s socialist revolution since the moment it took power in 1959. This is not a bug of socialism, it’s a feature.