I want to clarify something in this forum, because I see that it is something very serious, I am realizing that 90% of the world population is unaware of the reality of Cuba, the government shows exchange rates that are not real, those numbers are only possible. For the foreigner or tourist who is visiting and can buy things in Cuban pesos, in reality for us each USD costs us 250 pesos, therefore do the respective calculations, NOTHING or NO information that the government shows to the world is REAL, just show something beautiful, a mirage, we Cubans live in a parallel universe
If that's the case, why do you calculate the price of eggs in dollars, and not in pesos? It can't be that a box of eggs costs two thirds of your monthly salary. If that's the case, you'd have starved to death by now. So I'm curious: how many Cuban pesos do you spend on your groceries each month?
Well, it is not fun, I visited Cuba several years ago and I know that it is true. The fact that there are few chickens in the island, importations are restricted, and the Government give a few to each citizen every month make remaining eggs surprisingly expensive and only affordable for tourists.
I've never been there, but I've read about it a few times. It sucks for the people
If eggs would be that expensive, I'd eat something else. I still don't get it though: hatching chickens is no rocket science. If someone has a a few hens and a rooster, they'll basically multiply themselves and eat whatever they can find.
This is also true: there are extremely different exchange rates for Cuban pesos (for citizens) and USD pegged pesos (for foreigners); 1 to 250 is not what I saw when I was there, but in the last years thing may have worsen to that extent.
So, if a Cuban citizen were to earn 1 m
BTC (worth $28.73 at the moment), would he be able to use that money? How many pesos would he get for that? If exchange rates are that twisted, what's the point of converting? Do you need dollars for daily expenses? I don't get it: if trading and imports are expensive, can't the (tropical) country focus on producing for it's own needs? It looks like a beautiful place, and it's such a waste to see it in poverty.
For reference: if I sell 1 m
BTC, I'll get €26.10 (after transaction fees). That's enough to buy 88 eggs in a supermarket. And eggs already got a lot more expensive lately, because of inflation and regulation that improves living conditions for chickens.
I gave the example of eggs because it is the food that we used the most in Cuba and it was the cheapest so that from there they can extrapolate and imagine how much any other food would cost, pork is for the ''rich'' here. it is a luxury, currently 25kg is sold for 153usd ((if we convert those 153usd to Cuban currency at a rate of 200cup, which would be the cheapest you could get it for, it would be about 30,600cup and with a monthly salary of 3,500cup it is impossible)) We eat rice and some fruit like plantain or banana, or rice with legumes like beans, but we don't have other foods, we are an island surrounded by water and yet we haven't tried fish for more than 5 years, how is it possible? Well, all the fish is left for the hotels and tourism, seafood, etc.... and I put it in dollars so you have an idea because I can put it in Cuban pesos which would be about 2500 or 2700, but it is a large number for which doesn't really give you a picture of how much inflation we're talking about. The other thing is that here the government pays us in Cuban pesos, however in the stores they ask us for the MLC currency, it is a virtual one created by themselves whose value is determined by the USD, but the worst thing is not that, if you go to the bank with your Cuban money to buy that MLC currency, you cannot buy it, they do not let you nor can you buy USD so you necessarily end up buying in the informal market, that is, from Cubans who have relatives in other countries and who send dollars to their MLC cards and then they sell you that MLC at the price they deem appropriate to make money.
Excuse my English, I am relying on a translator so that you can understand me as best as possible.