Ration Book System in Cuba Fails: Unable to Sustain Daily Life

The longstanding Cuban ration book system—introduced by Fidel Castro in the 1960s—has deteriorated to the point of being nearly ineffective for daily survival, according to a report by the Associated Press which highlights the dire state of government-run stores in Havana.

As of April, a state store in central Havana serving 5,000 customers offered just rice, sugar, and split peas.

While old signs list over two dozen items like yogurt, pasta, and soap, these products have been absent from shelves for months. Storekeeper José Luis Amate López reported having no customers for nearly two weeks. "No Cuban can truly survive on what's available through the ration book," he remarked.

The conditions reported by AP mirror the severe levels of food insecurity faced by five Cuban provinces: Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Guantánamo, and Santiago de Cuba.

At 68, Ana Enamorado was only able to purchase split peas and a kilogram of sugar from her designated store last month. Her combined salary and pension amount to 8,000 Cuban pesos, roughly equivalent to a mere 16 dollars per month.

Meanwhile, a carton of 30 eggs costs around 3,000 pesos, two pounds of ground meat fetch 900 pesos, and a pound of cornmeal flour is priced at 200 pesos. "There's almost nothing in the ration book," she said. "We practically live on air."

"Now we have to cut back, eat once a day, and live off memories," Enamorado lamented, recalling when her meals included pork, lamb, fricassee, fried plantains, and rice and beans.

Even the rationed bread has been halved. Lázaro Cuesta, 56, receives two small rolls daily for him and his wife. "They used to be 80 grams and cost 5 cents. Now they're 40 grams and cost 75 cents," he commented. "And the quality is worse." He survives on 200 dollars a month sent by relatives abroad. "If it weren't for remittances," he said, motioning to his neck, "I'd be choking."

While approximately 60% of Cubans depend on remittances, Rosa Rodríguez, 54, is not among them. In April, all she received from her state store was a donation of four pounds of rice. She earns 4,000 pesos—about eight dollars—a month.

"Everything is scarce here, everything, even that lousy bread they give us," she said. "If you buy beans, you can't buy sugar. If I retire, I die."

Cuba imports as much as 80% of its food, but the regime no longer has the funds to maintain this system.

William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and an expert on Cuba, noted that the government "botched" the 2021 monetary unification, leading to persistent inflation as the state spends far more than it earns. "They simply don’t have the money for it anymore," he stated.

This crisis is perceived as worse than the so-called Special Period of the 1990s when the Soviet collapse devastated the Cuban economy. During that time, Cubans lost between 5% and 25% of their body weight, according to medical studies.

Many who lived through that era claim today’s situation exceeds the hardships of the Special Period.

This past Sunday, even Cuban leader Díaz-Canel acknowledged before foreign communists gathered in Havana that Cuba "will eat what we are able to produce," a phrase that accepts the collapse without offering immediate solutions.

In February, the regime announced the "Zero Option" and promised seven pounds of rice per person monthly, but this extreme contingency plan hasn't materialized. Starting in April, the government scrapped general subsidies for rationed goods, replacing them with targeted subsidies—a structural shift in a system in place for over six decades.

The failure of the ration book system is starkly reflected in the statistics: deaths from malnutrition rose by 74.42% from 2022 to 2023, increasing from 43 to 75 deceased, as reported by Cuba's National Office of Statistics and Information.

Cuban comedians have already put lyrics to this disaster: the character "Pánfilo" sings in a recent video, "Bury the ration book in a cemetery, because it's ready for the grave."