Cuban: "At what point did we normalize that feeding ourselves is a privilege?"

“At what point did we normalize that eating is a privilege?” questioned a Cuban this Thursday, along with a photo of a purchase that cost over 3000 pesos for just a few tomatoes, onions, and fresh herbs.

"Some words in Cuba have lost their original meaning. 'Luxury,' for instance, has ceased to mean a sports car, a designer watch, or a trip around the world. Today, sadly, luxury fits on a wooden table, reduced to a few ripe tomatoes, a couple of onions, and a bunch of fresh herbs," wrote Danay Frómeta Rodríguez on Facebook.

Do the math mentally: 3,300 Cuban pesos. All the effort, the hours spent standing, the accumulated fatigue, and the thirty days of work of a whole month invested in a salary that disappears before the calendar ends.

This figure is higher than the official minimum wage, set at 3,210 pesos since July 2026. The Ministry of Labor itself acknowledged that this amount does not cover the basic basket. Economist Javier Pérez Capdevila estimated that a person needs about 96,000 pesos per month to survive —more than 70,000 just for food— which is between seven and thirty times the minimum wage.

Frometa acknowledged the frustration: "It hurts to look at the photo and think that what should be the most basic right of any human being —to put a decent plate of food on the table, to provide a home-cooked meal for our children— has become an impossible summit to climb. At what point did we normalize that feeding ourselves is a privilege? At what moment did the essentials become unattainable?"

"Let's not talk about extravagant luxuries. Here, the most expensive luxury of all is simply being able to eat," he concluded.

Several Cubans agreed with his complaint and expanded it to other basic issues. "Being able to take a shower, do laundry, keep the home clean, enjoy a coffee in the afternoon, eat a loaf of bread, buy school supplies," responded one user. Another was more concise: "Luxury, a bread with an omelette." A third added, "At this moment in Cuba, everything has become a luxury, including personal hygiene; everything is incredibly expensive."

In November 2026, a pound of tomatoes is sold for between 850 and 2,000 pesos depending on the province, and a pound of onions reaches 1,500 or 2,000 pesos in various areas of the country.

In light of the shortage, many Cubans have replaced rice with cassava, sweet potato, or taro, and some have even resorted to hunting pigeons for protein. Cuba imports nearly 80% of the food it consumes, and the lack of foreign currency exacerbates the shortage, according to a report by Associated Press published this Friday.