Havana Cuba. — In the La Época store, in full color, they have set up a point of sale for dairy products in freely convertible currency. The refrigerators occupy the small space next to the Western Union and display Clamanta Gustó brand yogurts and ice creams, in four-liter gallons at the price of 18.60 MLC, or 2,752 pesos, according to the exchange value of the MLC in the informal market. That figure is higher than the minimum wage in Cuba, so it is not surprising that the improvised booth it was half empty, with some curious people attracted by the color of the small billboards and the good appearance of the refrigeration equipment; but hardly any buyers.
The launch of the new brand occurs a month after the production of cassava ice cream as an alternative to substitute imports, because supposedly there are no raw materials to make the ice cream of a lifetime.
In October 2022, the province of Ciego de Ávila made headlines in the local press for “inventing” a cornstarch based ice cream as a thickener, and sweetened with honey due to the scarcity of sugar. In Santiago de Cuba, ice cream production is 100% soy-based, with rice starch and cornstarch replacing the traditional ingredients.
Nothing has been published about the level of acceptance of these products, examples of the “creative resistance” that is required of the Cuban people; nor about its permanence on sale, considering that cornstarch has practically disappeared for at least two years, and honey has vanished from all stores, including those that operate in MLC. To make large quantities of this “new” ice cream requires a regular and abundant supply of both ingredients, something that Cuba cannot guarantee.
Between the pathological inefficiency of the State and the growing poverty of the people, economic insolvency has bottomed out. Cubans are hungrybut they continually come up against offers that are too expensive, which even those who receive remittances cannot afford.
If before, with 100 dollars a few things could be solved, now the emigrated relative has to send 200 or 300 dollars a month just to guarantee decent food for their loved ones. People can’t afford to buy eggs, but someone up there thinks they’re going to spend their hard currency on home-made ice cream and yogurt, sold at prices so high they seem imported from another galaxy.
Standing in front of the refrigerators, a woman was asking a kind clerk about the quality of the ice cream, if it was creamy, if it tasted good, and her eyes would shine. But she immediately began to ask about the yogurt, which is probiotic, and there was natural and strawberry.
Finding any type of yogurt in the stores at MLC is a true miracle; but if it’s probiotic yogurt, the miracle is equivalent to a poker of aces, a stroke of luck that you have to take advantage of if you have the money, because you don’t know when it will appear again.
Probiotic yogurt is among the products that gastroenterologists recommend with some regret, because they know that it is as beneficial as it is expensive and scarce. Before Clamanta Gustó products appeared among the offers on MLC, it was only possible to find them on online sales platforms that fill the pockets of the Castroite elite and their foreign partners with dollars at the expense of Cuban emigration.
The woman listened to the master class on Clamanta ice cream and yogurt offered by the smiling employee, and not without regret she decided on the natural probiotic; Well, although her two children would have jumped for joy at the sight of the ice cream, her mother, who is already older, needs the yogurt due to her lactose intolerance.
At the other points of sale in the store, the shop assistants watched life go by, leaning on the counter, throwing bored glances at their cell phones from time to time. It seems that the clientele that owns hard currency no longer lives in Cuba, or has come to the conclusion that exchanging electronic currency in the informal market can better manage their money and buy something they need at slightly less abusive prices.
The stores in freely convertible currency today are museums of the regime’s lousy import management. Canned products predominate, excessively expensive and with poor performance, when what Cubans need are offers that allow them to fill as many stomachs as possible without having to leave their salary or pension, or beg for more dollars from a relative who lives in another country.
There is no meat, but there is beer. There is no rice, but there are peas. The famous Coppelia ice cream parlor often closes because there are no raw materials to make ice cream; However, Clamanta Gustó appears, a Mipyme based in Cuba, which sells in MLC “a creamier ice cream than Nestlé” and “a richer yogurt than Labiofam’s”, as explained by the clerk in charge of promoting the brand, who, In addition, he assured that they will always have these offers available.
Clamanta Gustó, also present in Galerías Paseo and the 3ra y 70 market, is now the incentive to spend the electronic currency that has remained stagnant in the cards. There is no oil, detergent, tomato puree or rice, because Cuba does not produce them nor does it have the money to import them. What there is is a line of very expensive dairy products, made with Cuban cow’s milk in the country of soy yogurt, cassava ice cream and the closed Coppelia.
