A Cuban mother traveled through several small and medium-sized enterprises in Matanzas in search of milk for her son and documented the prices she found in a video posted on Facebook: 6,500 pesos at a store in the Versalles neighborhood and 4,500 pesos at another establishment where she was finally able to buy it.
"Now we can't even drink milk here in Cuba. Poor children who need it so much," said Brianna Rodríguez in the clip.
The woman was direct in describing what she experienced: "A package of milk cost me 6,500 pesos. Honestly, I tell you that the money I had was not enough."
Rodríguez clarified that he did not record the video to evoke sympathy, but to showcase the everyday reality of Cuban families.
"I say this not to evoke pity or to cry over misery, but so that you can see the situation faced by Cubans day after day," he pointed out. His conclusion was blunt: "A person who lives off their salary cannot survive," he emphasized.
The documented prices are devastating compared to the actual income of the population: a single bag of milk costs more than the minimum wage of 3,210 pesos per month in effect since July.
This situation is not isolated. On Sunday, a mother from Havana, Ani Vázquez, from the Luyanó Moderno neighborhood, posted on Facebook that she was selling her induction stove for 12,000 pesos because she did not have milk for her son.
The trend of parting with appliances and belongings to afford basic food has become recurrent on Cuban social media.
In the comments of Rodríguez's video, user Magalis Sosa Freire summarized the general sentiment: "Life, this is not life, with all the products at such high prices and no one stopping this increase, as each one sets their own price."
The crisis has structural roots. Between 2018 and 2023, national milk production fell by 58% and powdered milk imports decreased by 71%, according to data from the World Food Programme.
The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, acknowledged in June that more than 100,000 children are not receiving their daily milk ration.
The plan involves supplying powdered milk to 331,000 children and liquid milk to another 200,000, but none of those targets were being met.
Despite widespread shortages, the State assures that it provides milk to 15,026 children with chronic illnesses and to more than 16,000 pregnant women.
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