{"id":308344,"date":"2024-08-24T14:44:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T18:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncuba.news\/en\/?p=308344"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:59:17","slug":"flash-shot-people-life-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/flash-shot-people-life-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash shot: people, life, prices\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLife is getting harder by the day. You have to work really hard to bring food home,\u201d Miguel \u00c1ngel told Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez, a photojournalist for <\/span>OnCuba<\/b>, on a tour of the streets of <\/span>Havana<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miguel \u00c1ngel is a driver for a state entity and barely earns about 2,400 pesos, according to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the <\/span>prices<\/b><\/a> on the street, I can\u2019t buy practically anything with that money,\u201d he said. \u201cNot chicken, not oil, not eggs, not coffee\u2026and even less so with the economy in the dumps. In order to eat, I have to invent, you know.\u2026\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of chicken and other food products in a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Sale<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with his inseparable camera, Otmaro walked around the city with a recorder in hand, not only to portray the surrounding reality, but also to talk to people, to hear their daily concerns firsthand. And the prices, the high cost of living, surfaced in every conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is very expensive,\u201d confirmed Rafael, a worker in Communal Services.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy salary is not even enough to buy medicine for my wife, who is sick. I can\u2019t buy anything in the <\/span>MSMEs<\/b><\/a> because I don\u2019t have enough money for that. Barely to buy what is sold on the ration book, and something I can solve,\u201d he confessed sadly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Food<\/a>
Food sold in national currency in a MSME in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A MSME sells food in national currency, in El Curita Park, Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rafael\u2019s drama is the same as that of many Cubans, both in the capital and in the rest of the country. With the worsening of the crisis, the unstoppable inflation, the drastic fall in food production, and the failed results of the government\u2019s measures, many feel helpless, unprotected, and accept their reality with despair and resignation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others try to move forward, or even understand the situation that affects them. But the reason for some things still seems inexplicable to them. For example, the high prices.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that a precise study has not been done,\u201d said Isabel, a retiree with a pension of only 1,528 pesos.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of food products in a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of food products in a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI worked in a factory and I know how prices are determined, and it cannot be that the cost of a product does not play with the price that is set for it,\u201d the woman explained. \u201cThe prices of many things seem to me to be way above costs and I don\u2019t see any logic in that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, she thinks that \u201cwhat is produced on the land here should not be so expensive either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is a sweet potato, a yucca, a squash, which are harvested right here in Cuba, so expensive? I don\u2019t understand it. It is really very difficult to deal with this situation, so the numbers don\u2019t play with the money,\u201d she told Otmaro.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of agricultural products in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Private<\/a>
Private stand selling agricultural products in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MSMEs and the price cap<\/b><\/p>\n

MSMEs and the private sector in general, which have recently been in the sights of the authorities and have been the subject of a controversial <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>regulatory update<\/b><\/a>, are also the talk of many Cubans who consider the prices of their products excessive.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many who, like Humberto, think that many private entrepreneurs seek to \u201ctake advantage of the shortage to enrich themselves,\u201d and defend the government price cap as a solution to stop what they consider is \u201cabusive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere the competition consists of raising prices, not lowering them, as happens in the rest of the world, and that is unsustainable for workers, for the families that depend on salaries,\u201d said the mechanical engineer in his exchange with our photojournalist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of food products in a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of food products in a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Humberto is in favor of capping the prices of products \u201caccording to what is invested in them\u201d and considering a profit of up to 30% for the seller. \u201cI understand that there is a profit margin, but not an abusive one, which is what there is now,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for how to cap prices, he himself has thought of a formula.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that enters Cuba has to come with an invoice. That way you can know how much that product was bought for, how much the buyer invested, and you can put a percentage on top of that, for transportation and operating costs and some profit,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

For him, in addition, \u201cthe cap should be for all products, not three or six, but for all. If only some are capped, as is happening now, the seller raises the price of the product that is not capped, to compensate for the profit of the one that is capped. And the one who continues to lose is the people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of minced meat and other products by a private business in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sale<\/a>
Sale of various products by private businesses in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not everyone agrees. Luis, also retired, is clear that \u201ccapping prices has never solved anything, only that products disappear and you have to get them even more expensively on the black market. That has always happened, but they keep doing it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, he understands that the issue of prices \u201cis very complicated. I was a state administrator and I know that in the cost you have to calculate freight, taxes, the operational things of the enterprise, and you have to have a profit margin, because if not, it doesn\u2019t add up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf on top of that you have to \u2018pay extra money\u201d to someone in the process, which surely happens a lot, that also counts. And of course, people don\u2019t understand it because what they are seeing is that their salary is not enough,\u201d he said, and added: \u201cBut the problem is not only with private businesses. The State has also raised prices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Food<\/a>
Food sold at the Soda Obispo ice cream shop in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Menu<\/a>
Menu at a state restaurant on Obispo Street. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About MLC* stores and other demons<\/b><\/p>\n

Dayron, an artisan from Old Havana, pointed to a problem that has been talked about a lot and \u201caffects the entire chain,\u201d but that does not seem to have a solution in the short or even medium term: the <\/span>foreign exchange market<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as that is not resolved, things will remain the same, or worse,\u201d he considered. \u201cBecause private businesses, MSMEs, myself, have to get the dollars from somewhere, and if the State does not sell them, we have to resort to the resellers, at street price, and that blow ends up being paid by the customer in the final purchase. But the government says it has no dollars, and it is trying to charge in dollars for everything it can, so this is the never-ending story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also pointed to the stores in MLC, which, he said, \u201cdo not have that justification to sell at such high prices\u201d and, nevertheless, \u201call their prices are through the roof.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n