Exorbitant prices cause many complaints as restaurants reopen in Cuba

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “Sure, I’d like to sit down, but I can’t (…) my salary can’t afford these prices,” 30-year-old Carcache says, directing his gaze toward the terrace of “Bom Apetite” restaurant, where some 20 people chat, drink and eat tapas.

Under strict social distancing and health control measures, restaurants and bars in 8 of Cuba’s 15 provinces reopened 2 weeks ago, after being closed since January due to the coronavirus.

But, after the joy over the news, came the harsh reality: exorbitant prices that led many to post photos of their receipts along with outraged comments on social networks.

A construction worker, Carcache chose to drink a bottle of tequila with his friends on the cliff, enjoying the sea breeze, one of the promenade’s main attractions, located in the west of the capital.

“If I earn 3,000 pesos a month (US$125) and a beer costs 150 (US$6), can I come here (to the restaurant)? No. This is crazy, it’s crazy, prices are not this high even in Dubai,” he complains.

Astronomical prices and full restaurants are an apparent contradiction that only finds logic in the concealed intricacies of a hidden economy, where the dollar dictates and rules.

“My aunt Nena and I had to sell cell phones for snacks,” ironized local comedian Adrea Doimeadiós, in a recent interview.

“A LITTLE BIT HIGH”

On the terrace, doctors Cary Merlin and Alexis Fernández, both 36 years old, escape from the burden that for 18 months the pandemic has unloaded on the profession. “We are aware that there are people who can’t afford this, and sometimes nor can we,” Cary says. For Fernandez, “the prices are a little bit higher than expected.”

In announcing “a necessary reopening,” Minister of Domestic Trade Betsy Díaz stressed that it was being implemented under a “complex economic situation,” marked by “a shortage of essential products,” and alerted that “the price scenario” would “be different.”

The monetary reform implemented in January included an increase in state salaries, but also of 500% in prices, which triggered an inflationary process.

Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis since 1993, due to the impact of the pandemic on tourism, one of its main economic drivers, and the tightening of the U.S. embargo. In addition, imports have been drastically reduced, aggravating food and medicine shortages.

“Bom Apetite” restaurant owner Moraima Cabrera (59) admits that her prices “are a little high,” although “they are not the most expensive” on the Paseo. Her cheapest dish, a Neapolitan pizza, costs the equivalent of US$8.

The tequila that Carcache and his friends bought on the street for 700 Cuban pesos (US$29) costs US$100 in the Paseo, US$13 less than the minimum wage in Cuba.

DOLLAR EXERTING PRESSURE

“Prices change daily, unfortunately,” because “if today they raise the price of (pork) meat, I have to increase the price,” Cabrera says.

Pork, an obligatory dish in the national diet, has shot up from US$1.46 to US$5.41 per pound in the past 2 years, unaffordable for the average consumer. Economist Pedro Monreal highlighted on Twitter that “the increase in the price of popular meats from national livestock (…) has turned them into ‘high-end’ foods.”

In addition, business owners are forced to import the parts and components they need in foreign currency, or buy them in the scarce wholesale markets that exist on the island and that operate in dollars.

And, in the midst of galloping inflation, they face another aggravating factor: they have to buy the greenback in the informal market, where it is traded at 65 pesos per unit, more than double the official rate of 24 pesos, as they cannot buy it either in banks or in the country’s exchange houses.

“You have to go out and look for dollars on the black market” and “then sell in local currency at a high price” or else money “is not enough,” explains Arturo Sanchez (26), owner of a bar outside the Paseo.

Like many, Cabrera and Sanchez pin their hopes on the reopening of the country’s borders to foreign tourists, with more purchasing power, on November 15. “We are all counting the days for this to happen,” Cabrera says.