Some Cubans depend on sugar water as food shortages bite

Food subsidies, without which the majority of Cubans would not eat at all, are getting harder to come by and more expensive as the government fights sanctions and finds it difficult to pay for imports.

Not even the size of an adult hand, breads are smaller, rice is scarce, and coffee and oil are nonexistent.

“Some people just drink water with sugar before going to bed,” stated Rosalia Terrero, 57, who works at one of Havana’s “bodegas,” where subsidized food is available for purchase.

The shelves of the store are nearly bare.

A slice of subsidized bread, which the government has decreased from 80 to 60 grams (2.8 to 2.1 ounces) each day, is mostly what Terrero’s own family of seven survives on. However, she claims that this is not enough “to fill your stomach.”

Rice and beans are two more staple foods.

The majority of citizens cannot afford to purchase at non-subsidized state businesses that only take foreign money or at privately owned stores, which were only allowed to operate in the former communist country three years ago.

Cuba is experiencing its greatest economic crisis in thirty years, marked by extremely high inflation and a meagre $42 monthly wage on average.

However, Terrero told AFP that “what hits Cubans the hardest” is the food deficit.

“It’s not as evident when there’s no rice, pasta, or macaroni on the table, but it hits quite hard when there is nothing at all. From the moment they wake up until they go to bed, Cubans are unhappy.”

Cuba is having more difficulty affording to feed its 11 million residents as its foreign reserves are depleting.

According to government figures, the communist island needs around 3,300 US tons of wheat every month for bread, but in July and August it was able to obtain only a third of that amount, and in September only 600 tons.

When a wheat-laden ship was unable to unload last week, the government claimed it lacked the “financing” necessary to cover the cost of the cargo.

This has also occurred with recent salt and rice shiploads.

As in August, the populace was forewarned by Domestic Trade Minister Betsy Diaz that there would be “no oil or coffee” accessible anywhere come September.