Food Markets | Seed Shops | Money

Food Market
Open for business again

In 1968, when 55,000 small businesses were taken over by the Cuban government, private enterprise was essentially made illegal in Cuba. Later even farmers were banned from selling meat and vegetables to anyone but the state. But the food shortages of the early 1990s caused the government to change its strategy.

The government decided to allow everyone who grew food the chance to sell at least some of their produce privately. It hoped that this would give people an incentive to grow more food, more efficiently.

In rural areas, state-owned farms were turned over to those who worked on them. While they are still required to sell some of their food to the state at fixed prices, part of their production can be sold at a profit, at whatever the market will bear.

The government also allowed the central Mercado in Havana to reopen. It is now once again crammed with fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.

The policies seem to have worked. The production of fresh vegetables is one of the bright spots of the Cuban economy, increasing four fold in the last decade.

Seeds in the City
© Knowledge in Action and
© Sound Development Communications Media
2004

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