Cuban private grocery stores thrive but only a few people can afford them

(15 Nov 2023)

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER:4463723

RESTRICTION SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba - 25 October 2023
1. Image of a saint on the ground as people walk by
HEADLINE: Few can afford Cuba's private grocery shops
2. People buying food in a small, privately owned food store (mipyme)
3. Various of products for sale
ANNOTATION: Dozens of tiny grocery stores have sprung up in Cuba in the past months, selling everything from cooking oil and rice to shampoo, jam and toilet paper.
4. Student Karla Gonzalez walking with friends on the street
ANNOTATION: Locals here call them “mipymes”, a name derived from the small and medium-sized businesses the government first allowed in 2021.
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Karla Gonzalez, high school student:
“Anything you can't find in a normal (state) store you can find it in a mipyme."
6. Products for sale with prices at mipyme
ANNOTATION: Their prices are far from affordable, even for a doctor or a teacher, who make about 7,000 Cuban pesos a month or some $28 in the parallel market.
7. Products for sale
ANNOTATION: For example, 2.2 pounds of powdered milk from the Czech Republic costs 2,000 Cuban pesos or about $8.
8. Truck unloading goods at mipyme
9. Man carrying passenger in bicitaxi
ANNOTATION: Those who can afford to shop there include Cuban families receiving remittances from abroad, tourism workers, diplomats, employees of other small- and medium-sized businesses, artists and high-performance athletes.
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Vilma Velasquez, retired:
“Mipymes are very expensive. Excessively expensive for the average Cuban, it is not enough, but they have helped us to “resolve” (find) some things, to find some products that are not available anywhere else."
9. Various of products in mipyme market
ANNOTATION: For shop owners, operating in a country where the communist state has held a monopoly on most forms of retail sales, import and export is also difficult.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Florida, United States - 20 September 2023
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Pedro Freyre, Analyst with Akerman, a U.S based law firm specializing in the relationship between U.S policymakers and Cuba and adjunct professor at Miami University:
“The challenge for those corporations is they basically are expected to thrive in a very arid landscape for private enterprise. And I think that's something that is recognized across the board. Cuba is a socialist country. The fundamental ideology of the country has not changed.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba - 25 October 2023
11. Woman purchasing items
ANNOTATION: Ration books allow Cubans to buy small amounts of staples like rice, beans, eggs and sugar each month for about a few U.S. cents.
12. Various of people in the streets
ANNOTATION: But the rest of their diet must be acquired through other outlets, including state-owned stores and now the mipymes.

STORYLINE:
Two years ago, the socialist government of Cuba, driven by a crumbling post-pandemic economy and acute scarcity, took a small step towards a more flexible economy by allowing Cubans to form small and medium private businesses.

Since then, almost 9,000 such businesses have been opened in the country.

The government’s objective was to boost local production of manufactured goods and services but the most evident signs of the new measure are the number of small and some big stores selling imported products that most Cubans can’t afford.

Dozens of tiny grocery stores have sprung up around Cuba in recent months.



Such items are a treasure trove in post-pandemic Cuba.












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