Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced this Thursday that the Cuban regime will allow the establishment of private chains of restaurants, cafes, hamburger joints, and stores with a presence throughout the country, and that it will seek to attract foreign fast-food franchises to invest in the island and expand their operations on a national scale.
The announcement is part of a package of 23 economic reforms approved by the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, held on Wednesday at the Palace of the Revolution and concluded by Miguel Díaz-Canel.
"To create chains of restaurant stores, a network of light cuisine with recognized brands or others that are established here, extending throughout the country. In other words, a small or medium-sized business, someone, or a foreign investment that wants to create a network of restaurants, cafes, burger joints, or any service will be allowed, in order to expand the services available to the population," declared Marrero.
The Prime Minister also announced that the government plans to "invite foreign franchises of light food, which exist widely around the world, to invest in Cuba and expand their chains within the national territory."
Until this announcement, private businesses in Cuba faced significant restrictions on expanding beyond a single establishment and could not form national chains.
No foreign fast food franchises were officially operating in Cuba either; what existed were private businesses that imitated international brands like Starbucks, Burger King, or KFC under adapted names such as "Starcafé" or "Burger Queen."
The reform package approved by the PCC is structured around six pillars: economic management system, municipal autonomy, business autonomy, agricultural recovery, foreign trade, and foreign investment.
Among the most notable measures are the elimination of mandatory intermediation in imports and exports, the opening up to foreign direct investment in the private sector —including small and medium-sized enterprises—, the removal of key limits for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the possibility for Cubans residing abroad to invest on equal terms with other economic actors.
Díaz-Canel, for his part, acknowledged at the conclusion of the session that it is no longer enough to explain the crisis: "There are obstacles that do not come from outside or from blockades. There is sluggishness, bureaucracy, regulations that hinder those who want to produce, and decisions we have postponed."
The context in which these announcements arrive is one of accumulated economic collapse: the CEPAL projects a decline in the Cuban GDP of 6.5% in 2026, with a cumulative contraction of 10.3% in the two-year period of 2025-2026, while power outages exceed 20 hours daily in some provinces and emigration surpassed 250,000 people in 2024.
The National Assembly was called to an extraordinary session to ratify the reforms approved by the PCC, a step that Díaz-Canel himself described as urgent: "These are not new ideas; they are decisions that the country discussed and approved years ago. The mistake was not in proposing them, but in delaying them. And that phase of postponement must come to an end."
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