With an all too suspicious regularity, some basic food products disappear from circulation in shops in Cuba. The responsibility for these shortages was previously placed on the government, which would have been incapable of providing supplies, voluntarily forgetting that the island is subjected to an economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States. Since private micro, small and medium-sized enterprises were introduced into the Cuban market, it seemed that this was no longer happening.
In reality, the products that disappeared in state shops miraculously appeared on the streets sold by ignoble characters who got rich on the black market. Today, with the introduction of private businesses, the food situation has improved although there has been a lack of cooking oil in the last month.
All types of cooking oil have been withdrawn from sale in shops. According to the owners of private companies who sold it until the end of March, there is a price problem. Justification that I also noted.
But what happened? The price of oil simply reached a level that the State deemed too high and unbearable for the population. It was therefore decided to place a limit on this price in shops. The shopkeepers, evidently always seeking to maximize profit, have deemed it necessary to withdraw it from circulation as, in their opinion, it is too low, putting the population in serious difficulty. It is also useful to remember that any quantity is available on the black market at a price which clearly it is very different from that imposed by the state as a maximum limit.
The Municipal Council of Trinidad, in the province of Sancti Spiritus, in the center of the island, referring to the powers granted to them, has entered into an agreement with the owners of private businesses, Agreement 106/2024, in which the maximum price is established of 700 Cuban pesos for each liter of oil and the price of 300 Cuban pesos for each pound of chicken meat.
“The decree-law 46 of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises establishes the creation and economic operation and establishes the fiscal, financial and price regulations of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, resolution 306/2023 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices of 30 December 2023 in its resolution reports that the prices and tariffs of the products and services marketed in the MYPIMES (the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, ed.) are determined by them, depending on supply and demand, except where it is it is necessary to regulate fixed or maximum prices on the services and products that these workers present,” reads the agreement.
“Given the excessive prices of chicken and oil products that are marketed today in this form of non-state management for sale to the population, it is necessary to apply what the aforementioned resolution provides. The Councils of the Municipal Administration are authorized to regulate the fixed or maximum prices and tariffs on the products and services provided by MYPIMES, which have the greatest impact on the population and when circumstances recommend it to obtain more favorable prices for the population, taking into account the conditions and the characteristics of each municipality, subject to conciliation with this form of non-state management”, states the signed agreement.
So the shop owners signed an agreement which is obviously simply waste paper because after its signing in all the shops, from one day to the next, the cooking oil disappeared. They do not intend to submit to the agreement because they evidently believe the price imposed is too low.
On the black market it is possible to find a liter of oil for the price of 1300 pesos, almost double what its maximum price should be. These ignoble characters who take advantage of the economic difficulties of the island as long as the state let them do what they wanted guaranteed the sale of their products, when someone told them that it was time to lower the bar they withdrew from marketing the ‘oil.
But if previously one could blame the lack of products on store shelves on the inability of the state, now I wonder what they will say from Miami, always careful to report every problem on the island given that the cause is not attributable to the state in the slightest but to private companies.
The only fault I can attribute to the state is that of not having requisitioned the oil stocks that are present in many warehouses to sell it at controlled prices to the population. A couple of days ago, passing along a street, I happened to see a truck full of oil bottles unloading but not even a trace in the shops.
Today it was the turn of oil, tomorrow it will be the turn of some other product if the state does not take serious measures against these people who speculate on the economic difficulties of the island.
Andrea Puccio – www.occhisulmondo.info
