sales pages on-line for relatives abroad to buy for their relatives in Cuba have not only proliferated like mushrooms after the rain, but are also revealing the disorder in the island’s diet.
Among the first five products in the “best sellers” sections that some sites include, such as Supermarket 23, Yuppy Market, Alawao or Nercado, the following are repeated: condensed milk, powdered milk (with and without sugar), minced chicken, sausage or mayonnaise and crackers (a frequent snack for many Cubans). That is, foods that are not very compatible with a balanced diet.
Among the most requested products are also those that can be divided and stretched for several meals. Leading the list are chicken or pork sausages, hamburgers and turkey mince used in many homes to make croquettes, along with instant soft drinks that are the mainstay that students bring to elementary schools.
While pieces of beef or pork are less in demand, boxes of frozen chicken quarters, innards and cheap sausages can be finished hours after appearing for sale on these online portals. Vegetable oil also frequently runs out and the supply of fruits, vegetables or greens is reduced and many times these are sold in cut or frozen format.
Vegetable oil also frequently runs out and the supply of fruits, vegetables or greens is reduced and many times these are sold in cut or frozen format.
Imported merchandise widely wins the game over what is produced on the Island. It is easier to find a can of tuna from Europe in these digital markets than fresh fish taken from the seas around Cuba. The cheeses, the style gouda either cheddar, they also exceed several times the few dairy products with a national bill that are marketed.
All this proves that the problem of malnutrition in Cuba is not only due to the increasingly alarming Poverty indices. When almost three years ago Food and cleaning stores were dollarized, it seemed that, at least, those who received remittances from relatives abroad would be able to have a variety of food. This, despite assuming a new social division, soon became a generalized complaint and even one of the reasons for the massive protests on July 11, 2021 (many of the demonstrations called for the closure of MLC stores, freely convertible currency).
Just at the beginning of this April, the World Food Program, belonging to the UN, released a report in which he accredits that “the diet of the average Cuban household is poor in micronutrients and not sufficiently healthy or diverse due to the limited and unstable availability of nutritious foods, socioeconomic factors, and poor eating habits.”
In The documentin which the responsibility for the economic decisions of the Government is denounced as the so-called Ordering Task, it was emphasized that the situation was worse for the Cuban who did not receive remittances. However, foreign sales websites confirm that, as with happiness, money does not guarantee a good diet either.
Roasted meats, lobster, and shrimp, which have disappeared from the vast majority of Cuban tables, seem today to come out of a fantasy novel, but access to foreign currency does not even make Cubans lean towards the varied meats and fruits that are always gave the Island: avocado, sweet potato, cassava, malanga, okra, bananas, mamey, pineapple, mango or all kinds of citrus… Few more eloquent proofs of the failure of a system that has lasted 64 years.
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