Valdés Mesa: "The inflation in Cuba is resolved by supplying the market."

The Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa acknowledged that the solution to inflation lies in supplying the market, but admitted that this is not possible "in the short term", during a tour of urban agriculture program facilities in Havana.

Valdés Mesa visited the Alamar organic farm nursery, located in East Havana and belonging to the agricultural company Bacuranao, and the Los CDR organic farm, managed by the Youth Labor Army.

In statements to Cuban Television, he summarized the structural contradiction of the Cuban economic model: "We have formulas. If inflation is combated by supplying the market, we must produce enough to ensure that there is sufficient supply, but we cannot achieve that in the short term."

He said that another challenge is "eliminating intermediaries, flattening the structures involved in this; salaries have an important component in production costs and are reflected in the prices we will sell in the retail market."

However, "the formula" has never worked in Cuba, despite the regime frequently repeating Valdés Mesa's same speech.

The organoponic farm Los CDR, with just 14 workers —10 of whom are civilians—, serves as a benchmark for low prices to combat speculation.

Their products are marketed to hospitals and other entities with social impact, and they support municipal agricultural fairs.

Valdés Mesa's statements contrast sharply with the actual magnitude of the crisis. The official inflation rate closed 2025 at 14.07% according to the National Office of Statistics and Information, but independent economists estimate a real figure close to 70% in the basic basket, much higher than the official figures.

In February 2026, the official year-on-year inflation rate fell to 12.33%, although the Cuban peso depreciated by 47.8% against the dollar in just one year, going from 345 to 510 pesos in the informal market.

The devaluation of the peso and stagnant wages worsen an already deteriorated food situation. Cuba produces only 11% of the rice it consumes —down from 30% in 2018— and spends over 400 million dollars annually on imports of that grain. In total, the island imports approximately 2.5 billion dollars yearly in food, when it could produce half of that locally according to estimates.