The private sector elite enjoying steak through Cuba’s crisis

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About a third of Cubans work in the private sector, where salaries can be much higher. For some others, the 4 million-strong diaspora provides a lifeline. Online grocers, such as Supermarket23, allow relatives to make an order abroad with delivery in Havana in as little as four hours.

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Others find ways to send hard currency to family members on the island. These can be exchanged on the black market at 500 pesos per U.S. dollar, rather than the official rate of 24.

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Life for the private sector remains complicated. The regime slammed the brakes in 2024 — restricting the maximum number of employees per enterprise to 100, while forcing private companies to charge in local currency and work through a state intermediary to import goods.

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“The Cuban government is like a small child banging its head against the wall,” said one business consultant in Havana. “It has to hit its head at least three times before it realizes it needs to try another way.”

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Nonetheless, the crisis has forced the government to live with the private sector, which it regards as a necessary evil. Officials sometimes blame the private sector for inflation or for “speculation” but recognize that it is performing a vital role.

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The U.S. exported US$444 million of goods to Cuba in the first 11 months of 2025, up 13 per cent year on year, according to the non-profit .U.S-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. The exports were mostly agricultural goods, food and medicines, which are exempt from Washington’s embargo.

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The unleashing of smaller businesses is the government’s only project “that’s had any success” in the past 15 years, said Joe Garcia, a former Democratic congressman from Florida with links to Cuba.

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Among the obstacles they face is the government’s constant fiddling with exchange rates and currencies, which has created a financial morass for Cubans to navigate.

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To explain the system, a local businessman sketched out a pyramid showing the local hierarchy of money. At the bottom are electronic transfers of Cuban pesos used to pay those in the state sector. They languish at the base because of the shortage of banknotes, meaning recipients must queue at banks to get their hands on money to spend.

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Above cash pesos comes the MLC, a “convertible peso” which exists only in electronic form but is notionally equivalent to a dollar; then cash greenbacks; and right at the top, dollars held abroad that can pay for imports.

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Despite the complexities, the booming private sector has made some Cuban businesspeople wealthy enough to afford gourmet treats and new cars.

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At a Spanish delicatessen on a quiet residential street in Havana, discretion is the watchword. Most clients place orders online for its Krug champagne, acorn-fed Ibérico ham and premium steaks, a sales assistant said. Are they foreigners? “No, there are plenty of Cubans,” she replied with a smile.

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A few blocks away, beggars scavenge the rubbish in the street for scraps to eat, while the store offers the island’s newly moneyed class French foie gras at US$27 a jar and Kobe beef entrecôte at US$200 a kilo.

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At Womy, a dealership less than a kilometre from Havana’s centre of government at Plaza de la Revolución, more than 60 imported Toyota pick-ups and cars are on sale, some priced at €45,000. “Business is good, there’s plenty of demand,” a salesman says.

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Fuel is another matter. Since Trump cut off Cuba’s imported oil sources last month, queues at the few petrol stations still selling have lengthened dramatically. Drivers must pay market prices of US$1.30 a litre and can wait as long as 24 hours to fill up, sleeping in their cars.