"Bread will occur when between the flour"

Havana/In the bakery glass they announce with large letters: “Long live on May 1.” With small letters, another poster clarifies: “The bread will be given when between the flour.” That old saying that says “Save bread for May” becomes a riddle. Since the beginning of this week, Havaners enter and go out with their empty jabs, while the dependents, without answers, make tales of cargoes and vessels that should have arrived. Meanwhile, in the private market, 6 and 8 loaves are triggered up to 300 and 500 pesos.

“I don’t know what to do to feed my son, especially this week of break,” says Teresa, a 35 -year -old mother. “I have been without gas for more than a month, and when the current goes at noon, I don’t have to cook. Bread is an emergency food, to solve, and I don’t even have that.” Teresa makes a sacrifice. Buy the 6 loaves bag at 370 pesos in the private cafeteria right next to the state bakery of your neighborhood, and at least ensure your child’s breakfast. “For the rest of the day I will invent,” he tells herself, thoughtful.

This Wednesday, the Administration Council of the Municipality of Plaza de la Revolution reported on its Facebook page that, during the last 48 hours, its bakeries presented problems to make the bread of the basic basket due to the lack of flour.

“That informative note is a week yes and another. “We all know about their ineptitude. Good at all.”

On the other hand, bread in private businesses has not scarce, but has experienced a considerable increase in its price in recent weeks. In Guanabacoa, it is normal to hear the pito or a child’s childish voice selling the streets at any time, the same at 6 in the morning as at 11 at night.

“Until two weeks ago I bought the 9 or 10 bread bag at 200 pesos,” says Leticia, neighbor of the Havana Nueva neighborhood, in the municipality of Guanabacoa. “In my house we are three, and each one in a snack or a breakfast eats two and sometimes up to three breads, because they are small, almost birthday, and do not think to save it for two days, because they get bad immediately,” Leticia continues, who at least has the possibility of spending that money every time. “Well, those same loaves uploaded them to 250 pesos last week, and this Monday they woke up in 300. The worst of all is that the flour now appears, but these prices do not go down again.”

Several have been complaints on social networks in recent days about the PAN situation, which implies that it is a national issue. In the capital, residents of the Lisa, Luyanó, Alamar and El Vedado, have warned that in the bakeries of their neighborhoods there is no flour, but individuals have any amount. “It’s horrible to live like this,” says Yuly Saez in a Facebook post. “We have been without bread for three days in the bakery … No one gives a solution or an adequate response, because our children what they eat is bread. Now individuals take advantage and sell the bag in 500 pesos.

To all this, no authority has given an explanation about the absence of the product or the estimated time to return to the bakeries. In September of last year, Anayra Cabrera Martínez, director of Industrial Policy of the Ministry of Food Industry, reported that the weight of the bread of the regulated family basket would have a decrease of 20 grams, from 80 to 60 grams, with the aim of not affecting its production and that it reached the entire population, due to the unavailability of flour in the country. He also explained that it was not a definitive modification, and that there could be effects on arrears, due to the logistics movement that required to transport flour.

Months later, the situation with bread does not seem to have an immediate solution.