Cuba’s Communist Party Congress Multiplies the Eggs in Cuba but Doesn’t Manage the Same with the Nation’s Fish

The inhabitants of Havana will have four more eggs this month compared to last month. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 16 April 2021 — The imminence of the Eighth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), which begins its work this Friday, has had a beneficial effect on Cuban chickens and a rebound for residents of the capital. This was announced on Thursday, with great satisfaction, by the Ministry of Internal Commerce which reported a substantial improvement compared to the month of March: in April there will be four more eggs available under “controlled” sales for people living in Havana and one more egg per person in the rest of the provinces.

The ministry considers it an “improvement throughout the national territory in the availability of this product for controlled sale in relation to the previous month.” In March, the people of Havana were only able to enjoy three eggs, in addition to the five guaranteed by the rationbook throughout the island.

Medically authorized diets that include fish have not had the same luck, and the ministry will have to substitute chicken for fish in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, while in the rest of the provinces it has been able to assure a supply “with their own sources.”

The list of products that the State should guarantee, and cannot, continues, because there is not enough canned meat and it will be necessary to replace it “partially” with chicken, depending on availability.

The same occurs with ground meat and sausages, which also have “production limitations,” the ministry reports, softening the tone of the shortages, and these, too, will be “compensated or delivered” in part with chicken.

The situation in Havana with soy yogurt is spreading across the country and the lack of the material with which the packaging for this product is made will also mean that the children of Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo will have to settle for smoothie mix.

Smoothie mix, which is a powder of sugar, whole milk, cocoa and salt, must be mixed with water for its preparation, although most children reject the combination and prefer it made with milk, a product that is also in short supply.

At least Cubans can improve their grooming. What the State does guarantee for this month and the next are two bars of toilet soap, another “improvement” that the ministry celebrates since “the equivalent of the soap corresponding to each person was less.”

The product, they say, will be from the Daily brand, although that will not be evident from the packaging, which will not be lithographed because the original packaging material is not available. However, that has not dampened the news and the authorities are pleased that this is “the highest quality soap, whose cost is equivalent of 7 Cuban pesos.”

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