Cuban Prime Minister urges to defend fair and non-abusive prices

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (ACN) Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister of Cuba, said all Cubans must defend prices to be fair and not to skyrocket after the implementation of the Ordering Task, when he addressed the Agro-Food and Services Commissions of the National Assembly of the People's Power (Parliament).

From this Monday, the meetings of the National Assembly's working committees have been taking place on line, ahead of the Sixth Regular Session of Cuba's legislative body, to be held on the 16th and 17th of this month.
Marrero Cruz took part in an analysis of the behavior of the substitution of imports in the production of food for the tourist sector, and said that the producers are not stimulated to sell to tourism, because it is more beneficial for them to offer them to other destinations because of the income they receive.

He illustrated his presentation with several examples, and among them he highlighted that on many occasions there are intermediaries between the producer and the consumer, and in correspondence with this he said that the price to the producer should be increased, but the price to the people should be decreased.

He said that much is still imported for tourism, however, he added, there is potential to achieve in the country several lines that come from abroad, and for that purpose called to encourage domestic production.
He also said that prices should be in line with the quality of products, and that bureaucratic mechanisms that slow down productive development should be eliminated.

We cannot continue waiting for the Government to decide how to do things, he stressed, and therefore we must eliminate obstacles that could be tying up the productive forces, so emphasis was placed on making decisions at the level of local institutions, without falling into disorder.

Several deputies spoke on these issues, among them Miladys González Rodríguez, congresswoman for Sancti Spíritus, who referred to the need to increase the levels of contracting with producers in order to respond to the demands of tourism, which must be strengthened, she said, because of its importance in the development of the economy.

Victor Lemagne Sánchez, deputy for the municipality of Trinidad, insisted on demanding that the quality of food products be kept stable as well as production, in order to avoid customer complaints.

Several of the participants agreed that it is essential to establish chains to achieve more immediacy in the arrival of food to its final destination, which is why producers, even individuals, were called to establish direct marketing links with hotel facilities without the traditional system of collection.
The more intensive application of science and technology in food production was another element referred to in the exchange, in which the search for viable alternatives to mitigate the difficulties imposed by the United States blockade on Cuba, by COVID-19 and by the current global economic crisis prevailed.