Besides all the usual wheat flour products the population can no longer access, the shortage means Communion hosts aren't being made any more.

"We inform all the dioceses that there are no longer hosts for sale," the St. Teresa Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Havana announced last week.

"We have been working with the little flour that was left and what was in reserve has already run out.

"We hope and trust in the Lord that we can resume work soon, and once we have enough to distribute to all the dioceses, we will notify you."

In the Catholic Church, Communion hosts may be made only from wheat flour, the Redemptionis Sacramentum instruction says.

"It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.

"It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist."

Cuba's wheat flour stocks have been depleting for several months.

At the end of August, the Cuban Ministry of Domestic Trade acknowledged "the difficulties for importing wheat" had worsened.

This was attributed to "the tightening of the blockade, the current international logistics crisis, and the country's financial limitations."

The US trade embargo of Cuba does not include food products.

Last month Guantánamo Food Industry director Albis Hernández Díaz said they had ended the week with 60,000 fewer units of bread, affecting homes in the municipalities of Guantánamo, Baracoa and El Salvador.

There is also a shortage of fuel for the bread ovens as well as blackouts, which have been ongoing since Hurricane Ian hit Cuba in September.

"The quality of the bread has been affected by the type of flour available, with less fine grains and loaded with bran or wheat husks, and the use of national yeast with low fermentation power, components that affect the flavour and colour of the bread and, in addition, they slow down the production process," Díaz said.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

The monthly production of hosts in the South American nation has fallen from 80,000 to 30,000 recently, the Catholic News Agency reported.

Giovanni Luisio Mass, prior of the Order of Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Jerusalem, told local media the drop has affected every parish in three Venezuelan states.

He added that only 1500 hosts can be sent to the parishes in the north of the country.

This is because there is no longer enough flour to make the 8000 hosts these parishes have always needed.

Several parishes, along with the local communities, have started their own searches for the flour needed for the hosts.

Shortages in Venezuela include food, toilet paper, medicines, auto parts, chocolate, oil, and clothes irons.

According to the Central Bank of Venezuela, food prices went up 92 per cent last year.

According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, since 2003 the Venezuelan government has imposed price controls on 165 products, including cooking oil, soap, milk, flour, cereals, toilet paper , cleaning products, detergent, diapers, toothpaste and sugar.

The local currency has plummeted in value.

As a result, price-controlled commodities are affordable, but disappear from shelves in no time, often to be resold on the black market at market rates.

And the goods that are not price-controlled are unaffordable because of the devalued currency.

The government has instituted measures such as distributing tickets for supermarkets and placing digital fingerprint readers in stores to prevent people from exceeding the allotted amount of products they can buy.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Triumph Dining