State-owned companies have not received flour in the last three weeks to make bread for the rationed market
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Matanzas, 27 February 2025 — The Provincial Food Company in Matanzas has only confirmed what had been the main topic on the streets of the city for more than three weeks. When the state entity announced on Tuesday that there was no flour to make the rationed bread for the market, the supply of the food had fallen dramatically and its price had skyrocketed.
“This official information was expected because the bread situation is critical in this province. No one is safe, there are problems in the municipalities and problems here in the city,” a resident of the Versalles neighborhood told 14ymedio. He went to the area around the Parque de la Libertad on Wednesday in search of bread.
The day before, Iván Castro Rodríguez, director of the Food Company, confirmed to local media the lack of flour in Matanzas territory. The official added that, despite the fact that “different efforts” had been made to resolve the situation, up to that moment they had not been successful.
“This official information was expected because the bread situation is critical in this province. No one is safe, there are problems in the municipalities and problems here in the city.”
Initially, the news excluded the collapse, but in reality the city has been suffering from such problems for almost a month and in the last week the state bakeries have not been able to guarantee the daily ration. “They sell it one day yes and one day no, sometimes two or three days go by when there is none,” explains Ramona, a retired resident of the Peñas Altas neighborhood.
“Those of us who are having the worst time with all this are those of us who live furthest from the MSMEs,” says the woman. “Most of the street vendors who come here resell the bread that the workers at the state bakeries give them to sell on the street.” If there is no flour in the official establishments, the network of merchants who walk or cycle through the streets collapses.
“We are committed to restarting full production as soon as the flour arrives,” said Castro Rodriguez, but the Matanzas residents are preparing for a long absence of the product. “This is going to take a long time and that is why they have made this announcement now, to silence people because there is a lot of popular discontent,” Ramona said.
“A bag of soft bread, if you can find it, now costs between 300 and 350 pesos in private shops, and medium-sized loaves of bread are already going for 150 pesos,” complains the pensioner. “The further away you live from the few MSMEs that still produce bread, the more expensive it is.” The lack of the product affects not only breakfast at home and school snacks, but also affects other daily meals.
“It’s not just that it’s more expensive, it’s that we can’t guarantee having it, so we have to make do with what we have.”
“With rice being so expensive, in my house what we often eat at night is bread with something,” explains a mother who came to pick up her son outside a primary school at midday on Wednesday. “Bread is a support because it goes with everything, you can put anything in it.”
In the city center, tourists are not immune to the bread shortage. A restaurant near the boulevard has replaced the bread that accompanied one of its most popular starters with plantain chips. “It’s not just that it’s more expensive, it’s that we can’t guarantee to have it, so we have to make do with what we have,” explained an employee to a customer who was surprised when he saw some slices of fried plantain next to the cheese and ham chips. Other menu items, such as the Cuban sandwich and the hamburger, were also not “coming out” due to the lack of bread.
On a nearby corner, a vendor selling bread and cookies barely lasted a few minutes between hawking his wares and emptying the box he was carrying on his bicycle. When there is no bread, alarm bells go off and in Matanzas people sense that if the star of the snacks, breakfasts and starters is absent, it is because “things are bad, really bad,” according to Ramona.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
