Growing food crisis in Cuba is churning profits for some businesses in Miami
There is no rice or oil at supermarkets. Buying soap or detergent is only accomplished after standing in long lines that seem to never end. The last time she stood in line was an eight-hour endeavor.
Cuba native María Matienzo, 69, shared those realities with her son in Miami. He found a solution in a flourishing business that provides food shipments to the island.
“For two weeks now I have been receiving a daily meal service that is delivered to my home and the portion is enough to get me through lunch and sometimes even dinner,” said Matienzo in a telephone interview from Santa Clara, in central Cuba.
Although the price of the service — about $36 every five days — is higher than the approximately $25 most people earn monthly, it is a worthy “sacrifice,” said some Cubans who live abroad .
“I am an only child. I left Cuba looking to improve and help those who stayed there,“ said Luis Enrique Lezcano, who lives in Homestead.
“I am paying for the food delivery service, but I have also bought food packages that deliver cans of fish, SPAM, sausages and vegetables. All of this can be bought from Miami for delivery to Cuba,” Lezcano said. “Apparently the products are already there, only waiting to be paid for in greenbacks for delivery.”
Cuba is going through a severe economic crisis, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic that forced authorities to close the borders and lose one of its few sources of income: tourism.
The Cuban government, which spends at least $2 billion annually on importing food, has said that it does not have sufficient capital to support its purchases abroad and several economists have predicted that the shortage in supplies will increase.
Lezcano said he is concerned that a more serious food crisis is about to hit Cuba.
His mother said that although the government is selling “food modules” to the elderly, the prices and quality “leave a lot to be desired.”
“They offered me one of those modules: a frozen chicken with a few sides, which cost about $10, almost all of my retirement stipend. I am eating because my son in Miami sends me food, but not all the elderly have a child abroad,” Matienzo said.
The price of food purchased abroad to be delivered on the island varies according to suppliers. Companies like Dimecuba and Cuballama have food combo packages that range from $95 to $250, while other smaller agencies and even individuals offer various shopping options. In Camagüey, for example, an agency sells a $200 package that includes 10 pounds of rice, five pounds of beans, garlic, onion, soft drinks, tomato puree, two cans of fish, a serving of chorizo, oil, 10 pounds of pork, four pounds of chicken, pork chops, ribs and even “special” mortadella.
For Rolando “Roly” Martínez, a Cuban-American who lives in Little Havana, the crisis has turned into a business opportunity.
“The authorities are giving people a really hard time in Cuba. My family has a pig farm in Aguada de Pasajeros, but they cannot sell the meat because that would get them into trouble. So we devised a method for me to sell the meat here and they only deliver it,” he said.
“By not selling it, you avert problems with authorities and, from here, we sell the meat at slightly higher prices and by the piece,” Martínez said. “Then I send them the earnings with my niece who is a Spanish citizen and comes to Miami several times a year.“
The Cuban government’s recent crackdown against “illegalities” in a country where selling even what a farmer produces is illegal has resulted in more than 500 trials in Havana alone. Many have resulted in convictions on charges that include contempt, disobedience and illicit economic activity.
Meanwhile, the economy continues to tumble. A recent report by The Economist Intelligence Unit predicts a collapse of 8.3% of Cuba’s GDP this year.
José Ramón Machado Ventura, Cuba’s second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, recently said that the country could not afford to import any more powdered milk. And President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced that no more coffee would be imported. According to official data, in the first quarter of the year Cuba only imported 25 percent of goods compared to the same period the previous year.
For Martínez, the solution is to open the economy.
“The leaders want to be in control of everything, because in the end they are the ones who earn the most money with the misery of the people,” he said.
“What I do gives me and my family enough to live on, but there are bigger companies that have all the permits to import,” he said. “That’s where the real money is and the people controlling that are the children and relatives of the generals and the leaders.”
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