They have the capacity to produce more food than they need. It’s government control of the economy that discourages businesses and individuals from engaging in any productive agricultural activity.
Capacity and production are two different things. The gov’t has so badly managed the economy that they cannot buy any production inputs outside their own boarders, including fertilizers, seeds, even gasoline is in short supply in a country flooded with oil. The reason is because they cannot buy replacement parts for the industries they nationalized. They, too, thought trade deficits meant nothing because of their oil reserves. They ignored the fact that you need to be able to get the oil out of the ground.