Government of Cuba announced rationing of food ad hygiene items including cleaning products. In light of a grave economic crisis. Citizens will face regulations in buying basic items like eggs, chicken, sausages, rice and beans.
According to Commerce Minister Betsy Daz Velzquez, various forms of rationing would be employed in order to deal with shortages of staple foods. She blamed the rationing on hardening of the US trade embargo by the Trump administration. Economic experts have also blamed the shortage on the plunge in aid from Venezuela. Due to sanctions imposed by US President Trump on Venezuela, the country has not been able to export oil and hence has led to two-thirds cut in shipments of subsidized fuel that Cuba used for power and to earn hard currency on the open market.
“We're calling for calm,” Daz said, adding that Cubans should feel reassured that at least cooking oil would be in ample supply. “What the country needs to do is produce. Sufficient merchandise is what will lead to shorter lines,” said Manuel Ordoez, 43, a small business owner.
Rationing of products like cooking oil has already begun in many parts of the country where stores are limiting the number of the items that a single person can purchase
The policy announced by Daz appears to go further and apply the same standards across the country of 11 million people.
The Cuban economy crashed with the fall of the Soviet Union. This plunged the island nation into a decade-long period of misery and hunger that ended with the arrival of subsidized Venezuelan oil in the early 2000s.
The people are now facing a abrupt end to a phase of relative prosperity in recent times with the latest shortages and rationing.
Sale of goods higher-priced goods are not affected at the moment but, items like soap, rice, beans, peas etc. will be sold in limited quantities per person and controlled through the national system of ration books, she said.
Cuba maintains a total monopoly on wholesale commerce, imports and exports, with virtually no access for the country's small but growing private sector.