Sales of private business bread suspended in well-known MLC store in Havana

The sale of bread made by a private business in a well-known MLC store in Havana, andthe consequent citizen rejection that caused the publication of the news, could be behind the suspension of its commercialization this Tuesday in the Mercado de 3ra y 70, in the Playa municipality.

In the midst of the flour shortage that has aggravated the supply of bread in the capital, Cuban Internet users denounced over the weekend that this essential food was being sold in freely convertible currency (MLC), in which the vast majority do not receive their salaries. of Cuban workers.

The publication on Facebook of photos of bags of bread, boxes of frozen pizzas and other pastry products inflamed the comment networks of users who denounced what they considered an outrage and shamelessness on the part of the authorities.

Indignation also grew over the sales prices of the products:3.75 MLC for the bag of four small loaves of bread and 6.90 MLC for the box of one small pizza.

These and other products are manufactured by Home Deli, a supermarket chain that appears unaffected by the raw material problems faced by state-run bakeries and many of the smaller-scale private ones.

With the current shortage of flour, the Cuban authorities are restricting its use in order to guarantee the population's quota of standardized bread, an objective that is not achieved in a stable manner. In addition to the insufficient quantity of bread, Cubans complain about the poor quality of the bread they buy from the State.

“Given suspicions about the origin of the flour, they suspend the sale of Home Deli bread on 3rd and 70th. The private business was the subject of a controversy on the networks due to the high price of its products,” reported the independent news portal.14 intervene on their social networks.

This was stated this Monday to the aforementioned media by an employee of the MSME that managed the area of this business in the supermarket on 3rd and 70th, belonging to the Cuban state.Home Deli began selling its frozen pizzas at (MLC) at this location in mid-March, as announced on their networks.

The formula for selling a private company in a state establishment is not common on the island. In the midst of the current economic crisis and the shortage of foreign currency collection stores, the State turns to certain Cuban entrepreneurs to make up for the productive deficiencies of socialist companies.

“Whoever wants bread should go buy it at 3 and 70,” user Iyawo Olo Oshun denounced last Friday in a Facebook post, stating that he had protested at the MLC store over an offer that he considered insulting.

After the decision ofsell foreign currency to the population at an exchange rate of 123.60 pesos per US dollar and withthe MLC hovering around 145 pesos in the informal market, the purchase of a bag of four loaves of bread represents an outlay for Cuban workers of more than 460 pesos.

Taking into account that the Cuban government set the minimum wage at 2,100 Cuban pesos (CUP), and pensions between 1,528 and 1,733 CUP, the purchase of a bag of 4 loaves could represent a fifth of a worker's minimum wage.

The increase in the price of the very poor basic basket of goods and services that the State barely manages to guarantee, added to the prices of the informal market - triggered by an inflation that does not stop growing - plus the prices in MLC of products that are only sold in these stores with which the regime earns currency, and the electricity, water and other expenses that families pay, have brought the cost of living in Cuba to an unsustainable threshold for many Cubans.

The sale of bread in State stores, in MLC and produced by individuals who seem to have no problems acquiring flour, caused a heated controversy on social networks. “Look where the flour goes. “Nothing, no words,” said a Cuban Internet user.

According to14 intervene, businesses like Home Deli, El Gelato and a few others that escape the lack of wheat flour are very rare.“They have in common that they are few, private and very, very expensive”, highlighted the media, drawing attention to the access to raw materials that these businesses have and the quality of the products they offer, compared to the poor quality of the bread from the winery.

“In any case, the sale of bread in MLC is another clear indication of its progressive disappearance in national currency, something unthinkable until just a few months ago,” the publication considered.