Coffee in Cuba? Not Even in the Dollar Stores
By Juan Diego Rodríguez 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES — Two days before the end of the month of November, Pedro went to buy coffee at the bodega [ration store], but was very upset when they told him there was none. “No, there is no coffee now, you have to wait for it to come back in,” the clerk explained as he handed back the ration book.
The Havanan was not satisfied with the explanation, but shrugged and started looking for coffee elsewhere. Last month something similar had happened with the sugar, which he could not buy either because, they told him, “it got wet,” although he knew well that there were no leaks in that establishment and that it had not rained those days.
Pedro remembered that in the Sorpresas store, located in the Plaza Carlos III shopping center, they sell coffee in foreign currency. On one occasion he went there for an emergency and bought a couple of small packages for US $1.75, so he decided to use the magnetic card (MLC) account in which he keeps some savings in foreign currency, thanks to the remittances that his emigrated daughter sends to him.
The store window displays large packages of Cubita coffee at $14.65, a fairly high price for the retiree, but he still decides to enter the establishment. To his surprise, there is no line, a rarity in this busy center, and the saleswoman is distracted playing on her mobile phone.
“Grandpa, that coffee is in beans. We haven’t had any ground for days,” says the employee to the disappointed customer. “Now what do I do? I have nowhere to grind the beans, a machine for that nowadays is like a museum object,” Pedro laments. The young woman suggests that he go to the Gran Manzana hotel, where there is a shop dedicated to nationally produced coffee. “Let’s see if you’re lucky…”, she says when they say goodbye.
The journey continues, and Pedro, already eager to find coffee, takes a taxi to Old Havana. But when he arrives at the hotel and sees the store without lines, he fears the worst. “Sir, we don’t have coffee in any format and apparently this situation is going to last a long time,” says the worker.
Pedro, who was thinking of spending money and spending extra money to get his favorite drink, then realizes that the prospect is even worse and he will have to resort to the informal market to get imported coffee, which today is sold at exorbitant prices.
The Cuba-Café Company warned this Tuesday of delays in the arrivals of imports and in the deliveries of the businesses that process the beans, which has harmed “the retail distribution of ’mixed’ coffee* for the family basket.”
The company assured that the December coffee will be sold sometime in the month, because an improvement was already noticeable and it is hoped the problem will be solved by the 25th. But Pedro had to invest 600 pesos ($25 USD on the official exchange rate) this Wednesday for a 10-ounce (284-gram) package purchased on Revolico, while it remains to be seen if the coffee that was missing in November will be delivered to the warehouses or if Cubans without foreign currency can put their lips to a cup of Cuban coffee.
*Translator’s note: “Mixed” coffee includes non-coffee ingredients, for example ground peas.
Let’s be honest: Cuban coffee, the real stuff, is good but not great. By that I mean, it pales in comparison to coffee grown in Colombia or Brazil or Ethiopia and even México or Hawaii. So why doesn’t the Cuban government simply import a better coffee from abroad? That’s easy…they are broke. Mexican coffee producers would sell them as much coffee as they want to buy and probably extend credit to close the deal. But the Castro dictatorship has been broke for so long that their credit profile is mud.
Very interesting because in several Canadian cities Cuban exiles are doing a campaign already successful removing Cuban Coffee from the shelves of the stores. And the dictatorship are telling the ppl of Cuba that the embargo is the reason there is not coffee in Cuba.