Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI
PINAR DEL RIO, September - Officials in Pinar del Río province and in
the national press boast of what they call important investments in the food
sector that will increase production of foodstuffs destined to the dollar market
and to the family market basket.
However, the population will not see any benefit from the investments.
One of the companies mentioned by officials and press, Agua Los Portales, is
a producer of soft drinks and carbonated water destined to the dollar markets,
in which only tourists, a few Cubans who have access to dollars, and higher-ups
in the government and the Communist Party, can buy.
Similarly, the Milk-Products Combined Enterprise, which recently developed a
new line of candies destined exclusively for the dollar markets.
Another example is the Cuban Bread Chain, which will open four additional
stores. In these stores, bread can only be bought in dollars, at prices beyond
the reach of the average Cuban worker, who makes 249 pesos a month, according to
government figures.
The La Conchita preserves factory is also on the list. Its products can only
be bought with American money.
The investments may be important, but they have nothing to do with the
average pinareño. Here the population continues with its ration book and
the staples are the so-called 'sausage' and 'soy ground meat.'
According to the provincial director of the Meat Products Authority, both
the sausage and the 'soy ground meat' have had their meat products content
increased by 10 percent.
Pinareños say the only increase they have seen is in the price, one
peso per pound for the sausage and 70 cents per pound for the 'soy ground meat.'
The director also said that the 'soy ground meat' has had a new preservative
added that will increase its shelf life. Consumers swear it still has the same
unpleasant look, smell and taste it always had.
The new investments have not changed the fact that beef is rationed at a
rate of one pound per person every three months and is only sold to children
under six years of age.
The people in Pinar del Río have not benefited from the investments
and there is no indication that they will.
Versión
original en español
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