Oil at 2,500 pesos in Havana: "It's a utopia; we take two steps and it rises by 500 pesos, and cash is ten steps away on the horizon."

The liter of sunflower oil reached 2,500 Cuban pesos in Havana, a new record for 2026, according to testimonies from Cubans shared on social media, although the price continues to rise and has already exceeded 3,000 pesos in some provinces of the country.

The increase is staggering when compared to the records from previous months: in April 2026 the liter was around 1,500 pesos, and in June it ranged between 1,800 and 2,000 pesos in different areas. In just six weeks, the price nearly doubled in the informal markets.

This is how the Cuban activist Yamilka Lafita, known on social media as Lara Crofs, showed it on social media, and the comments on her post confirmed the price increase.

The testimonies gathered in their Facebook post outline a map of disparate prices throughout the Island.

In Sancti Spíritus, the situation is the most serious: "It has already exceeded 3,000 pesos. I don’t know what price it will reach in the future," wrote Elisa Hung.

At the same time, in Isla de la Juventud, prices are reported at 2,800 pesos; in Trinidad, 2,650; in San Luis (Santiago de Cuba) and Holguín, 2,350; and in Marianao, within the capital itself, the price drops to 2,050 pesos, "for now," as warned by Guillermo Daniel Garriga.

Despair prevails in the comments. "Everything is a utopia. If we take two steps, the price of oil goes up 500 pesos and cash moves ten steps away on the horizon," summarized Yunior González, mocking one of the latest "nonsense" from Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Lisset Pino Pupo was more straightforward: "That price for oil and other products is abusive in the midst of such scarcity and misery."

Behind the increase, there are two structural factors. The first is the complete absence of the product in the standardized basket: the Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, admitted in June that throughout 2026, the ration book had not distributed any oil, nor chicken or yogurt.

The second one is the removal of price caps on imported oils through Resolution 150/2026, signed on June 21, which freed the informal market from any formal limits.

The oil crisis reached a symbolic extreme last May, when cases of Cubans using sunflower oil as a substitute for diesel in tractors and buses were documented due to the fuel shortage.