20 October 2025
A hard-hitting report has appeared in the official publication Cubadebate indicating that government measures introduced to cap food prices in Havana are having little effect and unintended consequences.
The investigative report came three days after the official Communist Party publication, Granma, wrote on 13 October that inspection and price control measures have been intensified in Havana’s agricultural markets to try to address growing citizen concern about speculative pricing.
Granma’s report indicated that Havana’s government will now reinforce inspections to ensure regulations establishing unified price caps on producers, wholesalers, and retailers are adhered to. It came just days after President Díaz-Canel had met with the Government of Havana to demand a systematic and unified approach to resolve the multiple problems facing the capital (Cuba Briefing 13 October 2025).
However, in an unusual departure, just three days later, questioning the impact of the policy and seemingly its economic logic, Cubadebate published an investigative piece by a team of its journalists headlined ‘Cap or fiction: Regulated prices in Havana’s agricultural markets.’
They found on visiting some of the city’s weekend agricultural markets selling basic foodstuffs, that instead of prices falling “the price of produce was directly related to inflation and the dollar exchange rate on the informal market.” They also observed that in contravention of government regulations, some vendors failed to exhibit prices but were selling at up to double the legal price cap.
“Price caps are like putting a Band-Aid on a wound. No one complies, and inspectors are conspicuous by their absence at best; at worst, they buy them off with a string of overpriced onions,” Cubadebate quoted one Havana resident as saying.
The platform went on to note: the “discrepancy between the decree and the reality in Havana’s markets reveals that the current mechanism is insufficient. The population is trapped in an impossible dilemma: abide by regulations that are not enforced or accept exorbitant prices to feed themselves.”
This situation, it wrote, cannot be borne indefinitely by families “who end up suffering the consequences of uneven implementation and the disconnect between the designed policy and the complexities of the field.”
“The solution goes beyond simple control” requiring a comprehensive strategy that includes measures that address the root causes. This involves, Cubadebate observed, “facilitating access to fertilisers and fuel at affordable prices, directly supporting producers to shorten the distribution chain, and promoting a stable supply that, in the long run, naturally regulates prices.”
The article ends with what comes close to a serious warning to government about the consequences: “Effectiveness of any government measure is judged by its tangible impact on people’s lives. For these caps to cease being a dead letter and become a reality, an approach that combines credible monitoring with the diagnosis and resolution of the economic obstacles faced by both producers and consumers is imperative. Only then can fairs and markets fulfil their true purpose: to be an accessible space where people can purchase their food,” Cubadebate wrote.
Highlights in this issue:
- Official media report suggests government’s food price cap ineffective
- Response to spread of vector-borne viruses strengthened
- Cuba’s National Defence Council meets
- Fire destroys Cuba’s most important lobster processor
- Russia ‘still seeking solutions that enable long-term cooperation’
- Cuban opposition leader Daniel Ferrer goes into exile in the US
20 October 2025, Issue 1298
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