“Let them eat (less) bread” (LatinNews) refers to a recent need to reduce the daily bread ration in Cuba due to a scarcity of flour. Reuters also reported that the bread, “one of a handful of still subsidized basic food products in Cuba, will be reduced from 80 grams to 60 grams (2.1 oz).” Its price was also reduced to under 1 peso, or 1/3 of a cent. [See LatinNews for full article.]
The Cuban economic crisis is grinding on. Without prior warning, the government said last week that because of a scarcity of flour, bread rolls will henceforth be reduced by a quarter in weight, from 80 grams down to 60 grams. The government has endeavoured to put a brave face on a deeply unpopular measure. It is also reducing the price of the standard bread roll by a quarter, bringing it down to 75 cents of a peso (less than 1 US cent at the official exchange rate). It has used the familiar claim that flour shortages, along with most other setbacks, reflect the “intensification of the blockade imposed by the US government”. The ministry for the food industry claims the country has “a volume of flour that could provide continuity”, meaning that the restrictions could perhaps last “a few days”. Indeed, this is not the first time such restrictions have been introduced: in September last year in parts of the country bread rolls were “shrunk” from 80 to 50 grams.
Over the years the ration book, known as the libreta and used to purchase a whole range of subsidised essentials – once the pride of the revolution – has begun to be seen as increasingly anachronistic, used by very few other countries in the world, North Korea being one. In its heyday the Cuban libreta could be used to purchase deeply discounted bread, fish, meat, milk, and cleaning and toiletry items. But the list has been sharply purged as the economic crisis rolls on and the scarcity of foreign exchange puts many goods out of reach of the population. Bread can still be acquired through the private sector and at significantly higher prices. Shortages of food, fuel, and medicine continue. There are regular power cuts, which in mid-September were affecting about one-third of the country.
In a comment more likely to anger than to reassure the general population, the government said that despite the smaller size the quality of its bread rolls would remain untouched. But a bread buyer in Havana told Reuters news agency that “The quality is terrible. The flour tastes like acid.” Independent media outlet 14ymedio says the poor taste is due to “extenders” having been used to make the flour last longer. It adds that for decades rationed bread has been very hard, goes stale quickly, and has both poor texture and flavour. In May of this year there were complaints that the bread had a sandy texture and crumbled in the mouth. At that point the government acknowledged that there were “impurities” in the flour but insisted it was still fit for human consumption. [. . .]
Source https://www.latinnews.com/
Also see https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-slashes-size-daily-bread-ration-ingredients-run-thin-2024-09-16/
[Photo above by Norlys Perez (REUTERS).]