Ron Ridenour: The Battle for Food (5)

The Battle for Food (5)

(April 27, 2006)

“They pay us in script, which we can only spend in the company store to which we owe our soul,” just like in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s song.

That is a bitter refrain from an old friend and political refugee, who has lived here nearly three decades. Bill refers to the fact that most Cubans’ income is only in the national peso, which can not be used anywhere else in the world, nor can the recently introduced convertible currency (cucs), which is based on the US $ at 24 pesos. Everyone can use cucs to buy many products, even essential ones, that can’t be bought in pesos.

Acquiring food in Cuba is quite special. Some food is nearly a birthright “taken” for a pittance on the libreta—heavily subsidised items available on one’s ration card. And then there are those items one must buy on the free farmers’ markets, of which there are at least three types:

Agropecuarios—state controlled markets with maximum (topados) prices; these account for 70% of national market sales;
Agromercados—supply-demand markets established in 1994 and supplied mainly by the private farmers and their cooperatives (ANAP); prices are 40% higher, overall, than agropecuarios.
Agricultural urbana—the urban truck farms, which sell produce at high prices at roadside stands. The UTCs produced 4.1 million tons of ecological vegetables and condiments. Most goes to self-consumption for the city family growers at cost.

Not only Bill wants an end to the libreta, so do many of the well-off Cubans, including economist Omar Everleny. He says many Cubans sell items not needed at high prices to others. In this way, the state is wasting funds subsidising some people unnecessarily. Others are worried that without the libreta they will not have enough money to buy many essential items. The state instituted rations when the US started its blockade so that no one goes hungry. Everleny proposes that those with low incomes be subsidised with cash to buy these goods on the open markets.

What is available on rations costs an adult about 35 pesos a month. I calculate that to acquire these goods on the free markets would cost four to five times that amount. Bear in mind that the average wage is 334 pesos, the minimum 225, and minimum pension is 150. Economists estimate that the minimum wage must be doubled, in order that each person can buy the current monthly consumption of 30 pounds of vegetables, fruits and grains, plus some meat.

Libreta goods available monthly per person for 2005-6, followed by what was available in 1994-5:
§sugar=5 pounds (lb) in relation to 6 lb; salt=small portion both periods;
rice=7 lb to 6 lb; beans=1 lb to 1.25 lb; potatoes=2-3 lb to rarely; grains=½lb to ?;
ground beef= to ¾ lb; chicken=1/4 chicken to 1 lb for children only;
fish=½ small fish sometimes to the same; eggs=6-8 to 14;
coffee=½ lb pure to ¼ lb pea mix; cacao=½ lb to =0;
powdered milk=½ lt. for children up to 7 and then ½ lt. soya to 1 lt. up to age 7;
vegetables=0 to a few sometimes; bread=1 roll per day to the same;
tooth paste=2 tubes per persons to 1 tube per sometimes; cooking oil=0 to ½ lt. sometimes;
hand soap=1 sometimes to 1 rarely; laundry soap=0 to rarely; detergent=0 to rarely;
cigars=4-6 to 6; cigarettes=6 packs to the same; matches=1 little box to the same;
rum=1 cheap bottle sometimes to the same;
clothing and shoes=0 to officially each year but not always: 1 pants, 1 dress, 1 shirt or blouse, 4 underwear, 1 shoes-boots.

Farmer Markets

Everyone must buy some foods at the markets. Since I lived just behind Havana’s best stocked agromercado (at 19th between A & B), I shopped there my first week until a vendor refused to see my point that wearing a US flag T-shirt was supporting propaganda against his own people.
I then shopped mainly at the army’s EJT market several blocks away.

Shopping prices

ITEM Agromercado Agropecuario PRICES
root vegetables 3-5 pesos lb 1-5 pesos; potatoes 2 lb
tomatoes 5 lb 1-2lb
lettuce, cabbage 5 per 2-3 per
pebbers 8 per 5 per
garlic 4 per bunch 3 per
onions 10 per bunch 5 per
rice 4 lb 3-3.5 lb
beans 8-10lb 7-8 lb
oranges 1 per by lb or ? .50 per
grapefruit 2 per by lb or ? 1 per
papaya 5 per 1.5 lb or 3 per
pineapple 10-20 per 5-7 per
fruit bananas 1 per by lb or ? .50 per

Beef is not sold in pesos. If someone slaughters a cow illegally, there is a stiff prison term. The limited number of cattle are reserved for milk and bulls for farm work, plus some sales only in cucs.

This currency is politically valued at $1.10. Since everyone must exchange hard currencies into cuc, the state is obtaining currency it can use for imports.

Cubans buy undergarments and new clothing in cucs or they come from families living abroad.

The numerable cuc markets, cafes and restaurants charge about the same prices or even more than in the First World. A litre of juice, for example, can be two or three cucs Eggs cost .15 cucs each; a pound of beef 6; an apple .50; a good rum anywhere from 5 to 15—equivalent to a month’s minimum wage or more in pesos.

Cubans buy popsicles sold from state-run refrigerated bell-ringing trucks at five pesos. Many buy a dry ham sandwich at many peso or cuc stands for the equivalent of one or more days wage. And at the peso stands, one must stand to down the snack in a flash.

Pork can be bought at most forms of markets in pesos. The supply-demand markets have been forced to cut prices from 55 to 65 pesos a pound to 35 to 50, because the state is a sharp competitor now. State collectives, some cooperatives and the EJT sell pork for between 25 and 40 pesos.

Hygiene at farmers markets is not optimal. There is insufficient refrigeration so meat is laid in the open so customers can see what is offered and flies can eat. Sales clerks handle the meat with ungloved hands, which are also used to handle dirty bills.

There are more garbage containers in much of Havana than a decade ago, and collection is more regular. But there are too few or none in many districts. And some are stolen to be used elsewhere. People are accustomed to throwing trash, bottles and cans anywhere it fancies them.

While the state no longer can guarantee all foods and clothing in pesos, it does sell recycled clothing and it still subsidised utilities. Used clothing sells at 30-50 pesos for pants; 15-20 for shorts; 25-30 for shirts and blouses; 40-80 for dresses; 40-50 for light jackets.

An average family uses about 35-45 pesos a month for electricity, cooking gas and alcohol, water and telephone, for those who have the latter. The long-maintained monthly price of 19 pesos for 150KW was increased to 26 at the start of this year. And now there is a graduated price rise for greater usage. If one uses as much as 300KW, for example, it costs 91 pesos.
Many complain about the electricity increases; the state counters with a savings campaign. Besides the many programs underway, one could learn to simply turn off light switches, TVs and radios when not in use. But that is a strong challenge to the lackadaisical part of Cuban culture.

§The sugar mono-culture is broken. Production has fallen from 6-8 million tons annually to 1.3 million tons last year. There is 700,000 tons for national consumption, the rest for export. Prices recently rose from $4 to 20 cents per pound, so Cuba is planting more cane sugar again.

[Printed in Morning Star as "On the market", May 17]