Cuba cuts costs with peas in coffee

Cuba authorities bring back coffee mixed with peas in response to rising global coffee prices For some it had the acrid smack of austerity, for others it was a delicious brew that tasted just right. Either way, coffee mixed with roasted peas is returning to Cuba. Authorities have announced the resumption of the special blend, a venerable money-saving tactic, in response to rising global coffee prices and Cuba’s economic crunch. “It has been decided to once again produce coffee mixed with peas for the rationed quota,” a trade ministry note said in the communist party newspaper Granma. In the past year Robusta coffee prices had jumped 69% to $2,904 a tonne, it said, while peas had climbed merely 30%, to $500 a tonne. With President Raul Castro trying to shake up the centrally planned economy so that “two plus two equals four”, the conclusion was inescapable: bring back the peas. Cuba had long mixed coffee with roasted peas to stretch supplies after coffee production slumped, and then collapsed, following the 1959 revolution. The brew is less potent and more bitter than pure coffee, which Cubans tend to drink with lots of sugar. “It’s got a thin, sharp taste. I never liked it,” said Isa Morena, a guesthouse owner in Havana. “It didn’t help that we had no choice. It was that or nothing.” But when the pure stuff returned to the monthly ration book in 2005, amid an economic upturn, some complained it was unfamiliar and tasted funny. “I like it better with peas,” Juan Hernandez Pedroso, a street sweeper, told AP. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s what I’m used to.” Some Cubans in the US have shunned Starbucks and continued to home-brew the pea version. As an additional cost-saving measure the trade ministry cut the monthly coffee ration for young children. “The rationed quota issued to consumers up to six years of age will be terminated. These measures will be applied as of this month.” The measures mean that the government can keep distributing 115g bags of coffee, at a subsidised price of 17 cents each, to the population. The island used to produce 60,000 tonnes of beans annually and was reputedly the world’s top exporter in the 1940s, but output shrivelled after the plantations were nationalised. Labour shortages, negligence, incompetence and lack of incentives due to low prices all played a part. After a record low of 5,500 tonnes in 2009 a modernisation effort boosted production to around 6,700 tonnes last year. That still left a big shortfall filled with $47m worth of imports, Castro told the national assembly last December. The island could not afford that this year, said the president, and it was an “unavoidable necessity” to once again blend coffee with peas. He hoped the measure would inspire productivity. “If we want to continue drinking pure, unrationed coffee, the only solution is to produce it in Cuba, where it is proven that all the conditions exist for its cultivation, in sufficient quantities that satisfy our demand and enable us even to export it.” Cuba Global recession Economics Global economy Rory Carroll guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.