Lázaro Raúl González, CPI
PINAR DEL RIO, July - Dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of independent producers
of preserves that have flourished in this province in the last decade are being
squeezed out of business by adverse economic conditions.
The producers, whose exact number it's impossible to know, typically operate
out of the home, without a license or other official sanction and not so much
outside the law as under the shadow of the law, in the sense that the
authorities have never bothered with them. Their production, mostly of tomato,
mango and guava preserves, has been camouflaged as "for family consumption"
to evade government strictures against private enterprise.
These cottage industries have flourished by supplying the domestic market
with products that are either unavailable or available at prices that the
average Cuban cannot afford. Now, due to increases in the cost of their
supplies, their bottled preserves are reaching prices that local consumers balk
at paying.
A box of tomatoes that yields around 15 half-liter bottles has been selling
for 30 to 40 pesos, and never below 20, for most of this year. The cart-load of
wood for boiling the tomatoes has been going for between 100 and 150 pesos; the
bottle itself for one peso. The problem is consumers whose average salary is
just over 200 pesos a month cannot or will not pay more than three pesos a
bottle.
In addition, these entrepreneurs have to figure that periodically some of
their produce will be confiscated by police, even if it's only what they can
carry on their backs.
Times will improve for these merchants; it's unlikely they could get worse.
Versión
original en español
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