Cuban Coffee in US Dollars in Cuba
By Juan Diego Rodríguez (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – Long faces in line this Thursday at the entrance of the Plaza Carlos III shopping center to buy coffee. “Cuban coffee in American dollars,” one of the establishment’s customers scoffed aloud. The line burst into laughter at this, but a resigned indignation was palpable.
“It is incredible that we pay in MLC [freely convertible currency] for the coffee that is produced in Cuba,” said a woman. “But nothing, we pay for it and we do nothing,” a young man responded quickly.
Coffee is one of the scarcest products in the national trade networks and in the informal market it can reach a whopping 1,000 pesos for a one-kilo (2.2 pounds) package, or 250 pesos for a 250-gram (approx. 9 ounces) package. Despite the official media announcing a supposed recovery in coffee production in the country since 2020, the improvement has not been noticed in stores that take payment in national currency, where the supply of coffee beans or ground coffee is practically non-existent.
I am a coffee addict. I love premium Cuban coffee but let’s be honest, there are a lot of coffee brands that taste a lot better than Soriana. It only adds insult to injury that a kilo of Cuban coffee can cost as much as 1000 Cuban pesos in Cuba! This is very bad product management.
This is criminal behaviour.
…..but for folks in Canada, they can buy Cubita coffee at the London Drugs stores.
Under socialism, luxury Cuban products were sold on the international market for the public good but today, everything that is saleable is controlled by the army clique, independent of the muzzled national assembly.
There is no democracy left in Cuba, there is no internationalism, no honesty and no workers’ control.