Havana Cuba. — For several weeks they have been in short supply in various establishments in Havana —and surely in most of the country’s provinces— personal care and cleaning products. Bath soaps, laundry soaps and detergent have disappeared from stores in national currency or in foreign currency.
The toilet and laundry soap that they sell on a regular basis, once a month, does not arrive regularly at the store. For a family of eight people, only six pills correspond to the supply book; while laundry soap is one only for those over 65 who exist in the nucleus.
Families where there are small children do not receive a greater amount of soap or detergent, despite the fact that the little ones are the ones that dirtiest and their hygiene must be guaranteed.
To get soap and detergent, people are forced to go to the black market, where unscrupulous merchants take advantage of the situation and speculate on the prices of these highly demanded goods.
Toilet soap, whose official cost is eight pesos, is sold today at a price that oscillates between 125 and 130 pesos. Laundry soap, which costs nine pesos, is around 180 pesos, and a package of detergent can cost up to 1,500 pesos. Liquid detergent for washing up, which costs 25 pesos, on the black market does not go below 250 pesos. If it is imported, its price is between 500 and 800 pesos.
The blankets to clean are also missing. When they appear, they never go below 300 pesos, even though the official price is twenty times less. Other products such as the air freshener, the descaler for bathrooms and the degreasers, as soon as they go on sale they fall into the hands of hoarders, who resell them at a price several times multiplied.
Before 1959, the soap industry was one of the most powerful in the country. There were two large firms: Crusellas and Sabatés. The former manufactured FAB detergent, Palmolive toilet soaps, Candado laundry soap, and Colgate toothpaste. Sabatés produced ACE detergent, Camay bath soap, Oso laundry soap, Lavasol and Tide detergents, among other products.
To advertise their products, these two large firms sponsored, on radio and television, very popular programs such as “Cascabeles Candado” and “Aquí ACE de todo”. The latter was led by the multifaceted animator and actor Germán Pinelli, and had the popular section of “Palo Ensebado”.
Crusellas and Sabatés products were also very cheap. Bath soaps were ten to fourteen cents, and there were little sachets of detergent that were five cents.
Currently both factories are inactive. Before, when walking near them, you could feel the smell of their productions. Today there isn’t even smoke coming out of their chimneys.
Television and the written press have reported on several occasions about a detergent factory being built in the Industrial Development Zone of Mariel with the collaboration of a vietnamese company and that it would guarantee 90% of the detergent needed in the country.
But then, without any explanation, the OMO detergent appeared, produced in the Mariel Special Development Zone and belonging to the British firm Unilever, present in more than ninety countries around the world with more than four hundred different products. Where did the detergent from the Vietnamese company Thai Binh go?
A few years ago, stores specializing in toiletries were created, called “Water and Soap”, which sold their products in foreign currency. In these establishments there is no soap or detergents either.
In the boutiques of the big hotels, these highly demanded goods can appear, occasionally and in hard currency; but at prices higher than those of the stores in MLC Where do you buy the common Cuban? Therefore, they become almost inaccessible to the population.
The State maintains a constant campaign that exhorts the population to maintain hygiene to avoid infectious diseases. However, it does not provide the conditions for it.
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