A resident in Holguín shared photos on of dozens of Cubans queuing in front of a small business to buy oil for 2,200 Cuban pesos per liter.
Manuel García Verdecia, the author of the publication, noted that there had been a line of people waiting to make a purchase since the day before, in a crowd that showed no signs of dispersing.
"Since yesterday, the tide hasn't gone down to buy oil at Ángel Guerra and Mártires' Mipyme, at 2,200 per liter. At least this way, they'll oil their problems," he wrote with irony.
Despite the high price, which is beyond the reach of much of the population, 2,200 CUP per liter is not among the highest prices currently reported in the Cuban market.
In mid-August, a self-employed worker from Las Tunas started selling vegetable oil for 2,250 pesos per bottle, which the local media Tiempo21Cuba described as a sale without speculation following the removal of price caps.
A few days earlier, a Cuban resident in the United States expressed her outrage upon learning that a liter of oil in Cuba cost 4,000 pesos, more than the minimum monthly salary in the Island, which is 3,210 CUP.
The price increase occurred following Resolution 150/2026 from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, published on June 20, which removed the national caps on imported cooking oils and repealed the previous limit of 990 pesos per liter.
The price increase occurred after the Resolution 150/2026 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, published on June 20, 2026, which lifted the official cap of 990 pesos per liter that applied to imported cooking oils, arguing that the measure would encourage private imports. The result was the opposite: prices skyrocketed without restraint.
The measure triggered an uncontrollable price escalation across the country: oil reached 2,500 pesos in Havana at the end of July, surpassed 3,000 pesos in some markets at the beginning of August, and even reached up to 7,000 pesos in extreme cases.
Under social pressure, municipal governments began to establish their own limits. Guantánamo set the price at 2,200 pesos and threatened sanctions for violators. Pinar del Río and Matanzas also capped the price of oil, setting it at 2,150 pesos and 2,500 pesos, respectively.
The standardized basket has not distributed oil for months, a situation that the regime's own officials admitted to in June. The small and medium-sized enterprises have become the only points of sale with stock, but at prices that the majority of the population cannot afford.
The accumulated desperation has already led to episodes of violence. On September 4th, dozens of people looted a truck loaded with oil in La Lisa, in Havana, while it was being guarded by police who were unable to prevent it.
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