Cuba ration book fades as subsidised stores vanish

Cuba's ration book system is losing its central role as state-run bodegas disappear or are replaced by neighbourhood markets charging close to market prices during the island's economic crisis.

The “libreta” ration book was introduced by Fidel Castro in 1963 after the United States placed Cuba under embargo. For decades, it allowed families to buy subsidised basic goods from state-run stores.

The system once guaranteed a monthly basket that included rice, sugar, beans, meat, fish, soap and other goods. Official figures put the cost to the state at $1 billion a year in the 2000s.

Supplies have narrowed over time. In recent months, bodegas have had only a few pounds of rice and sugar for sale, leaving many shoppers to rely on dollar-priced state supermarkets or small private stores.

A pound of black beans costs 950 pesos, more than $1, at the new neighbourhood markets, more than a tenth of the average state monthly wage. America Guillen, 82, said the ration book is “practically extinct” because little is available at bodegas. Guillen lives on the minimum state pension of 3,000 pesos, or about $4.

The government says it now aims to subsidise only vulnerable people rather than all Cubans. It has given tax breaks for entrepreneurs to open 24 neighbourhood markets, where about 20 basic food and hygiene products are sold for 10 to 15 percent less than in private stores.

Some Cubans say the change falls far short of their needs. Rafael Garcia, 75, bought 10 eggs at a market in the Havana suburb of El Cerro for 1,350 pesos and said the goods were not cheap, only less expensive than elsewhere.