The scarcity and high prices of bread in Cuba are so evident that the official press once again devotes ample space to the subject this Wednesday. in a report paraphrasing the Our Father, Our bread… of every day?, Cubadebate criticizes that the product is not guaranteed even in the basic basket.
To “clarify the doubts of the population on the subject”, the media outlet claims to have sent a request for information to the Ministry of the Food Industry on August 31, which has not been answered. “Although it has been insisted on several occasions, until the time of writing this report, they were still ‘processing the request.’ asserts Cubadebate.
The publication recalls that last month the government of Havana recognized that there was a shortage of flour that affected bread production, but that the same authorities would guarantee food in “the standardized family basket”, the prisons, the hospitals, the orphanages, nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals, as well as for the Cuban Chain of Bread.
‘Cubadebate’ reaches a conclusion confirmed for weeks by ’14ymedio’: “Bringing said food to the table has become an odyssey for Cubans, once again.”
Given the numerous comments on Cuban networks, Cubadebate comes to a conclusion confirmed for weeks by 14ymedio: “Bringing said food to the table has become an odyssey for Cubans, once again.”
“Several of those interviewed for this report and readers of Cubadebate They agree that not only is the quality of the product poor, but sometimes they are not able to buy the quota of bread assigned by the family nucleus in the warehouses, something that should be guaranteed,” the article indicates.
The newspaper also laments the high cost of food: “In a quick tour of several non-state bakeries in Havana, it can be seen that the price of a bag of bread rises between 150 and 200 pesos, as well as packages of cookies. And the worst thing is that it happens before the eyes of the decision makers. Is the lack of flour and wheat a reason to raise prices exorbitantly?”
The problems are not limited only to the capital, the official website stresses, but they extend “at the national level”. This newspaper, for example, testified that in Sancti Spíritus, faced with the shortage of wheat flour, the state bakeries are adding to the dough up to 20% residue from rice huskinga mixture that gives it a sandy texture and sour taste.
“Self-employed workers or MSMEs must have the documentation that certifies or guarantees the legal origin of the raw material used”
Precisely about Sancti Spíritus, without mentioning the information in this newspaper, Cubadebate brings up the statements given to the newspaper Escambray by an official who asserted that “there is no justification for the private sector to continue raising the price of the package of cookies and the bag of bread” and that “self-employed workers or MSMEs must have the documentation that certifies or guarantees the origin legal status of the raw material used in the manufacture of such products”.
And it is that, despite some criticism of the authorities, Cubadebate He distributes the blame with the private sector and the “resellers”, who “wake up in the bakeries and take almost all the product”.
In this regard, they quote an angry client: “The bread from the particular points is from the state bakeries that make the regulated bread. How? By removing the products from the bread from the basic basket, that is why it does not have the weight, nor fat and it turns black in 24 hours. It’s a lucrative business.”
The commentator does not mention the many private businesses that buy flour online or the individuals that import it. Nor, of the MSMEs that have denounced the obstacles by the Government to import flour independently, as a group of bakers from Sancti Spiritus told 14ymedio at the end of august.
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