Rice loses space on the table of Cuban families who resort to cassava

The rising price of rice is prompting some Cuban families to replace it with cassava to fit their meals into an increasingly limited budget. Dainelys Morales shared on Facebook on Friday a photograph of her lunch, prepared with cassava and minced meat. Her inquiry about how much the cereal cost in other provinces gathered responses from consumers who described the difficulties of continuing to buy it regularly for their homes.

The comments placed a pound of rice between 390 and 450 pesos in Mayabeque. For Santa Clara and Bauta, in Artemisa, the participants mentioned a price close to 450 pesos, while in Havana they indicated that a presentation of one kilogram reached 1,100. Faced with these amounts, buyers from Mayabeque and Santa Clara indicated that they could buy a pound of cassava for about 70 pesos in the informal market, a difference that explains their choice.

The cost of completing the dish also appeared in the conversation. A participant from Santa Clara estimated between 680 and 700 pesos per pound of picadillo. Other comments expressed concern about the difficulty of maintaining a previously common product such as rice in the daily diet. The responses reflected concern about access to basic foodstuffs, in addition to comparing their prices between different locations in the country and commenting on daily purchases.

The rise in the cereal intensified after Decree 156/2026 abolished the national limit for its sale. The provision, signed on June 29 by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, appeared on July 16 in the Official Gazette. With it, the maximum of 155 pesos per pound, applied since March 2025, was eliminated, and prices began to depend on the market of each territory, with increases in informal sales after the measure.

The use of cassava has recent precedents. In August, a content creator showed a meal with eggs and mashed potatoes because she could not buy rice. In May, a Communist Party official in Manicaragua had presented bread made with cassava as healthy in the face of the shortage of flour. That proposal provoked reactions of indignation on social networks among those who questioned the alternative promoted by the official.

Since July 2026, the monthly minimum wage has been 3,210 pesos. Economist Javier Capdevila estimates that a person's basic expenditure for a month is 96,060 pesos, a sum close to thirty minimum wages. Within that calculation, he attributes about 70,070 pesos to food alone. This gap between income and expenditure places the substitutions on the table within a loss of purchasing power of Cuban households that must adjust their consumption.