Even with the increase in the minimum pension announced for September, a retiree can only feed three days a month.
Madrid, Spain.- Eating in Cuba has become a luxury that few can afford. According to the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit (OCAC), a Cuban needs at least 30,000 pesos per month to “Malcomer”, an amount equivalent to 14 minimum wages, 19 basic pensions or between three and five complete salaries of professionals such as doctors or university professors. “Not even a high salary is enough to cover the essential,” warns the report “Without a country there is no country and with Gaesa there is no future”, Posted this Sunday.
The study is based on data collected in June and exposes the impact of inflation, external dependence and productive collapse. Even with him Increased minimum pension Announced for September, a retiree can only feed three days a month. In 2021, with the so -called ordering task, it was estimated that the basic basket would cost 1,528 CUP per person. Today, according to calculations of economists cited by the OCAC, that cost exceeds 1,000 pesos a day, and continues to increase.
The prices of essential products in the informal market reflect an inflationary spiral out of control: a pound of rice can cost up to 375 Cup, the beans exceed 500 CUP, the 30 eggs of 30 eggs is around 3,500 CUP, and the pork reaches the 1,100 cup per pound in some provinces. Not even affordable foods, such as sweet potato or male banana, escape this logic: they have multiplied their price for ten in two years.
A political crisis disguised as scarcity
Far from attributing the crisis to climatic factors or the American embargo, the OCAC argues that hunger in Cuba is “a direct consequence of the current political and economic model.” 80% of the food consumed in the country are imported, although Cuba has fertile land and favorable climate. National production, in the hands of private farmers, faces legal restrictions, mandatory confiscations, lack of supplies and absence of credit.
The report emphasizes that while the levels of agricultural production, The Government allocates millionaire resources to the construction of empty hotels: in 2024 13 times more in the tourism sector was invested than in agriculture. For OCAC, this policy is deliberate and responds to the interest of the military and economic elite that the country controls through the Gaesa conglomerate.
In response, the organization proposes a radical transformation. Among its measures: eliminate the collection monopoly, deliver property titles to peasants, allow trade without state intermediaries and nationalize GAESA for its future dissolution. In addition, it advocates the creation of a Agricultural Development Bank, a new Law of Guarantees for Productive Investment, and the opening of the economy to the investment of the diaspora with international supervision.
