The Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced this Thursday that the Cuban regime will allow the establishment of private chains of restaurants, cafés, hamburger joints, and stores with a presence across the country, and will seek to attract foreign fast-food franchises to invest in the island and expand their operations nationwide.
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 gastronomy with recognized brands or others that are established here, that extend throughout the country. That is to say, a small or medium enterprise, someone, a foreign investment that wants to create a network of restaurants, cafes, burger joints, or any service, will be permitted, in order to expand services to the population," declared Marrero.
The Prime Minister also revealed that the government plans to "invite foreign franchises of light foods, which exist in many parts of the world, to invest in Cuba and also expand their chains within the national territory."
Until this announcement, private businesses in Cuba faced strict restrictions on expanding beyond a single establishment and were not allowed to form national chains.
There were also no foreign fast food franchises operating officially in Cuba; 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 package of reforms approved by the PCC is structured around six key areas: economic management system, municipal autonomy, business autonomy, agricultural recovery, foreign trade, and foreign investment.
Among the most significant measures are the elimination of mandatory intermediaries in imports and exports, the opening up to foreign direct investment in the private sector—including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—the removal of key limits for SMEs, 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 slowness, bureaucracy, regulations that hinder those who want to produce, and decisions that we have postponed."
The context in which these announcements arrive is one of accumulated economic collapse: CEPAL projects a decline in the Cuban GDP of 6.5% in 2026, with a cumulative contraction of 10.3% in the 2025-2026 biennium, while blackouts exceed 20 hours a day 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. That period of postponement must come to an end.”
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