The authorities expect there to be 50 new Alma Caribe stores, which will supply businesses and the population
14ymedio, Rosa Pascual / José Lassa, Madrid / Havana, 6 February 2025 — Three women sat down this Wednesday on the State’s Round Table program to give more details on television about a thorny issue for Cubans: the so-called “partial” dollarization. The regime has inexcusably decided to attach that adjective to the noun to convince the population that one day the peso will have value. However, last night it was again verified that, in the short term, only those who have foreign currency on their cards can expect an improvement.
Aracelys Cardoso Hernández, Deputy Minister of Internal Trade, began with a clear statement: “There is a deficient supply in national currency with the contraction of production and the foreign currency deficit, which does not allow businesses to be restocked,” she said, without identifying – much less assuming – responsibility .
The official explained that the measures approved in 2022 to trade in foreign currency “in order to have future offers in national currency that benefit the population” have led to the launch of several businesses of this type, both in the wholesale and retail markets, in line with what was announced a week ago on the Round Table program.
“Fifteen wholesale and retail marketing plans have been approved, of which eight are linked to the business system”
“Fifteen wholesale and retail marketing businesses have been approved, of which eight are linked to the business system served by the Internal Commerce system. One is made through an international economic partnership contract. The first three are dedicated to wholesale marketing, and five are mixed companies that have approved the wholesale and retail marketing of consumer goods and various products for the population,” she said.
In the 60 minutes that Randy Alonso’s program lasts, the origin of foreign investors was not mentioned – “the eight projects come from seven countries,” was all that was known, as she left out the names of the companies. She did want to convey the idea that they will find “a qualified workforce” in Cuba, something that will depend on the salaries that these new businesses can offer, at a time when the workforce is a source of concern in all sectors, particularly in the State sector.
The businesses are aimed at both the population and the wholesale supply of State and private stores – “all the actors of the economy” in bureaucratic language – and their main offers, at least initially, will be food, household utensils and cleaning and personal hygiene products .
The inspiration is in the supermarket at 3rd and 70th, on the ground floor of the luxury hotel Gran Muthu Habana, which has had an excellent economic result according to the authorities. Cardoso Hernández said that an attempt is being made to promote the idea that the prices are “competitive.”
Present at Mesa Redonda, Sonia Rivero Batista will be the Cuban manager of the joint venture Alma Caribe S.A., one of the two large companies presented yesterday that will be dedicated to retail and wholesale trade – both State and private – of many different national and imported products. Its expansion is expected to be vertiginous, according to its representative.
One of the stores announced is at 23rd and C, in El Vedado, Havana, which is ready to receive customers, although it is not yet open. A reporter from 14ymedio went to the store and verified that it remains empty. Some curious people who approached the windows of the establishment made similar observations: the refrigerator was disconnected, and there were no products inside. “It will be both a wholesaler and a retailer,” said a worker who left the store and locked the door.
Rivero indicated that the suppliers of this store are from “the same portfolio” as the one at 3rd and 70th, and that their experience in product rotation and stock needs is the basis for operating in this way. Market studies have also been done, she said, through interviews, to find out how much customers are willing to pay, with sales in freely convertible currency as a basis.
The reporter also visited other places, such as the one at 25th and 12th, where they are remodeling a Panamericana store and training employees in collecting payments by currency cards and cash dollars. “There is still no date set [for the opening]; we don’t know when,” said a worker. Another store that will use the same business model is under repair at Linea and 12th.
From here on, the growth is expected to be brutal. It will start with rented stores – there are now two being repaired – and will move to modular construction, two of them planned for the short term. They will each have 1,000 square meters, and there will be 15 of them in Havana. Ultimately there will be 50 throughout the Island, 48 of them new. In parallel, there will also be online sales.
Rivero Batista stressed that the ultimate goal is to “contribute to the development of national industry. For us, it represents a strength to have the availability of these products in the country, because it allows us to have them at our fingertips in a shorter period of time with cheaper costs. That makes it possible for us to link with these national suppliers.”
The other great protagonist of the night was Mercalhabana S.A., a State-owned commercial company that represents 22 wholesale companies and “has as its main objective participation as a national shareholder in foreign investments, as well as managing imports and exports authorized to supply the wholesale channel of the country.”
Yaimara Pérez Barrera, its vice president, indicated that this will be the “gateway” to the business system, acting as a manager and promoter of projects for the wholesale food sector. She did not reveal the amount that has had to be disbursed for a modernization that, she said, was radical, since the existing structure had “a notable deterioration and technological obsolescence.” Infrastructure has been recovered, and new technology has been incorporated, in particular for refrigeration, where the national company has supplied refrigerators and freezers, essential “for the business scheme in foreign investments.”
The director pointed out, without specifying anything, that there is already an existing business “in the form of a joint venture for wholesale and retail trade,” and two other similar ones are being studied. As a novelty, Pérez Barrera said, Mercalhabana has included “alternative forms of marketing, such as the sale of products on consignment and in customs warehouses.” The latter, she added, has been underway since 2024, and has allowed a “partial replenishment of the wholesale system, alleviating to some extent the shortage of basic necessities.”
All this will only be within the reach of companies and the population that can pay in foreign currency, what could be called a “partial” sphere
All this will only be within the reach of companies and the population that can pay in foreign currency, what could be called a “partial” sphere, but Deputy Minister Cardoso Hernández did not want the broadcast to end without insisting that all this is for a better future.
“Internal trade in national currency is and will continue being the majority in our country. The population must have confidence, because despite the situation that the Cuban market shows today, it is a priority of the State and our ministry that the offers in national currency continue to be the majority,” she said, before citing the battered social programs that must cover the needs of those who will be forced to look for non-existent products in the ration stores.
Thus, she concluded: “The partial dollarization of the economy is a temporary projection in the short term, but necessary for the capture of foreign exchange. The Cuban State will define the priorities of that currency in correspondence with what the population demands, its economy, industry and progress.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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