© Reuters.
By Alien Fernandez
HAVANA (Reuters) – On a small farm outside Havana, a Cuban family-run business produces gluten-free flour from banana, coconut and yucca, preferring locally-sourced ingredients to pricey imports as Cubans seek innovative solutions to a growing food crisis.
Cuba purchases most of the food it consumes from abroad, but revenues have plunged following the coronavirus pandemic, hampered by stiff U.S. sanctions and floundering tourism, once a mainstay of the Caribbean island economy.
That has led some, such as 38-year old entrepreneur Gabriel Perez, to look for alternatives.
“There is a crisis, that is undeniable,” said Perez, who recently sold a home and business to settle on farmland in the rural outskirts of Havana. “But in Cuba it stems in part from a lack of culture around eating the foods that we have at hand.”
He points to Cubans’ preference for rice, pork and beans, all locally available but many of which require machinery and agricultural inputs to grow at scale.
His business, Bacoretto, dries and mills yucca, rice, banana and coconut into organic flour preferred by gluten-intolerant consumers, who have only recently been able to find…
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