Cuba's Ministry of Agriculture has issued Resolution 186, mandating registries for rice, grains, beekeeping, and charcoal producers to regulate access to foreign currency payments. This step aligns with a bureaucratic trend overseeing profitable exports like honey and charcoal. Experts warn it fails to address the country's agricultural crisis.
Resolution 186, signed by the head of Cuba's Ministry of Agriculture (Minag), Ydael Jesús Pérez Brito, establishes four specific registries in municipal Agriculture offices: for grains in the Land Control Department, beekeeping in Animal Health, and charcoal in the Forestry Department. Producers must submit details such as names, identity numbers, addresses, land tenure information, plot locations and sizes, and their main production line. Registration occurs weekdays from Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon, and is required for accessing foreign currency payment schemes for exports like honey and charcoal, or scarce crops such as rice and beans.
This regulation fits a pattern of expanding administrative requirements for foreign currency access, a scarce resource in Cuba's economy. At the 13th Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) on May 16-17, 2025, state-controlled foreign-currency financing schemes were announced. For charcoal, Resolution 25/2025 from the Ministry of Economy and Planning bans transfers to other foreign-currency accounts or cash withdrawals. For honey, producers receive 650 USD per ton, while the government earns about 4,000 USD per ton exported, as confirmed by the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
For rice, producers get 55% of the sale price in foreign currency to cover costs like pesticides and fertilizers; the state keeps 45%, with 5% to the Research Institute. On corn, beans, and soybeans, the marketing entity takes 37% for export logistics, according to Vice Minister of Economy and Planning Roberto Pérez at the ANAP congress.
Economist Pedro Monreal, a former UNESCO specialist, highlights the agricultural crisis: “A very large percentage of Cuban household spending goes to one thing: food. And Cuba’s agricultural crisis appears unstoppable.” He points to declining domestic output and inability to import due to foreign currency shortages. The resolution strengthens state oversight, tying foreign-currency account openings to administrative approvals, with vague removal criteria like “any other cause in the state’s interest.”
In the Cuban state's view, “food sovereignty” means registration duties and adherence to top-down schemes, not freedom to produce and market. Economy and Planning Minister Joaquín Alonso Vázquez forecasts production rises in rice, beans, and more by 2026, yet bureaucracy overshadows producer independence.