The Cuban government is activating all its springs to expand, in the least possible term, a dollarization of goods and services, at a time when the island undergoes a deep economic crisis and faces the renewed aggressiveness of the new Trump administration.
Even when they mention that it is a “partial”, “gradual” and “short -term” process, the island authorities have been announcing the opening of new establishments and businesses that conform to the objective of capturing fresh currencies that circulate in the population .
At the moment, “15 wholesale and retail marketing businesses have been approved” whose cash flow is US dollars, either in cash or encoded on debit cards – like the Cuban Classic and other international ones – operated by the country’s financial device.
Partial dollarization: What about wholesale and retail? (+ Video)https://t.co/kj6zafug9a pic.twitter.com/omivityhkyj
– Round table (@mesardandacuba) February 6, 2025
Of those businesses, eight are linked to the business system attended by the internal trade apparatus and one is carried out through an international economic association contract, said Aracelys Cardoso Hernández, Vice Minister of the sector.
Three of them are dedicated to wholesale marketing, and five are mixed companies that have approved the wholesale and retail marketing of consumer goods and various products for the population, pointed out The Directive in the Program Round table.
“The eight projects in internal trade come from seven countries,” Cardoso Hernández confirmed without going into more details.
In her speech, the official acknowledged that there is a poor offer in national currency based on the contraction of production and currency deficit. Such a scenario, which is chronic, threatens the reapproview of trade, very beaten during the pandemic, but that during the last three decades dealt with severe solvency problems, among other evils.
To assemble the new businesses, to whose market all the actors of the economy will have access, the network of conventional and specialized stores will be used throughout the country, a qualified workforce and the creation of commercial companies that facilitate associations, he said.
A repeated logic
According to government aspirations, these business models will allow to revive the installed capabilities and place essential products, “such as hygiene and cleaning items, household supplies and food products.”
“Investor processes are being carried out in the facilities that not only improve the conditions of the facilities, but also create jobs and provide supplies for the cold cameras of the 31 cold companies in the country,” said Cardoso Hernández.
The logic of these businesses is the same argued by the authorities since the 90s and then repeated at other times, such as when the now in Declive stores in MLC were opened. The claim is “to obtain income in foreign exchange for the country, in order to offer in the future offers in national currency that benefit the population,” said the official.
“There are projects for the whole country, but they will be executed in stages, progressively. There are already approved projects for Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Matanzas, Camagüey, etc., ”he explained.
Another twist
This whole process was described in X by the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal as “a new twist to dollarization in Cuba”, in which the Ministry of Internal Commerce (MINCIN) is vigorously added to the replacement of the Cuban weight with currencies, segmenting markets, weakening monetary policy and favoring inequalities. ”
For the academic, “it is not just that traditional entities ‘collectors of currencies’ have strengthened their infrastructure for internal transactions directly in foreign currency (including cash), but that the Mining is launched thoroughly announcing 50 dollarized stores.”
2/11 It is not just that traditional entities “currency collectors” have strengthened their infrastructure for internal transactions directly into currencies (including cash), but that the minion is launched thoroughly announcing 50 dollarized stores
– Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) February 6, 2025
Indeed, as confirmed in the Round table Sonia Rivero Batista, manager of the Mixed Company Alma Caribe SA, in the second stage of the project intend to reach half a hundred businesses throughout the country, 48 of which will be new constructions, in addition to launching an online trade platform.
Alma Caribe SA aims at wholesale and retail marketing of food and non -food products, both production in Cuba and import. In a second stage, the firm will incorporate “a varied range of other product lines.”
Another objective, according to the directive, is to guarantee the stable supply of raw materials, consumer goods and supplies for the non -state sector to consolidate a domestic industry.
Based on the business model prevailing in the new 3rd and 70 market, in Playa, the company announced a first store.
The establishment is located in 23 and 6, in the Vedado Habanero, with “a logistics cycle design that allows us to maintain stability in the offer, and thus avoid supply potholes”, an endemic evil of the Cuban system.
Dollarize now, to defolarize later: the government tries to explain the contradiction
Expand from the State the wholesale food market
Another of the bets in the wholesale sector is Mercalhabana SA, a commercial society designed to “boost business development in wholesale and retail trade”, especially in the food sector, according to its vice president, Yaimara Pérez Barrera.
In fact, it is a monopoly that groups 22 wholesale companies, and its function is to intervene as a national shareholder in foreign investments, as well as manage imports and exports authorized to supply the wholesale channel of the island.
Mercalhabana SA, according to Pérez Barrera, has a logistics infrastructure that includes stores distributed throughout the country, in addition to the National Refrigerator Company, which provides essential refrigeration and freezing capabilities for the business scheme in foreign investments.
However, in an apparent contradiction, the official said that the current infrastructure is highly vulnerable by presenting a remarkable deterioration and technological obsolescence, which hinders production and marketing processes.
Given this scenario, the company “has prioritized in its strategy the recovery of infrastructure, the incorporation of technology and the modernization of the equipment”, As reported Cubadebate,
The Mercalhabana SA Directive said that the commercial society aspires to guarantee a constant flow of products, initially in foreign exchange, but “with the ultimate goal of supplying the wholesale system sustainably and, therefore, the population.”
Partial dollarization of the economy: common places and speech with little substance
Only patches, not a total reform
Among the observations made in X regarding what was explained in the Round tableMonreal pointed out That the “expansion of dollar internal trade does not seem to be so much a mechanism to enhance the reception of remittances, but a way to redirect them from the informal exchange market to large state” holdings “.”
In his opinion, “affirming that the currencies collected would serve to increase offers in national currency to the population is, at least, an idea discredited by recent practice, especially when a considerable investment in the commercial infrastructure itself is announced.”
In addition, it considers “problematic” the official narrative that wholesale trade in foreign exchange will guarantee supplies to promote national production. “The operation of links requires other factors, for example, stable supply of energy and incentives to national producers,” he said.
5/11 The official narrative that wholesale trade in foreign exchange will guarantee supplies to encourage national production is problematic. The operation of links requires other factors, eg. Stable supply of energy and incentives to national producers pic.twitter.com/bxect5lg6J
– Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) February 6, 2025
For Monreal“Dollarization puts another ‘padlock’ to the uneven play rules of the ‘economic actors”, because “not only the private ones are excluded from wholesale trade, but the profitable dollar retail trade is monopolized by few’ holdings’ state ”.
Julio Carranza, another expert who carefully follows the evolution of the Cuban economy and government policies, perceives that the Cuban economy is being “patching”, when what is needed is “a fundamental and integral restructuring.”
“Any measure that is taken outside this frame is ineffective; When more, solve specific issues in the short term, but accentuates the problems and tangles in the medium and long term, ”said the co -author of Cuba, the restructuring of the economy, A 1995 text that then portrayed the crisis of the special period and that 30 years later retains news.
