Workers fired for selling 15,000 apples to one client in Cuba

HAVANA: Several employees of a Cuban supermarket have been fired for selling 15,000 apples to a single customer in a country regularly plagued by food shortages.State news outlet Granma reported on Friday that the employees involved were let go after news of the sale first broke on the blog of a Cuban journalist, who witnessed it at a supermarket in Havana.A group of "young, husky people" who were "organized in a quasi-military" way appeared at the store and bought 150 cases of 100 apples, according to journalist Iorel Sanchez, who said all the fruit was for a single customer.The buyer paid the equivalent of 45 cents per apple, according to receipts published in the blog post.It is not uncommon in Cuba -- regularly hit with shortages on staples including fruit, butter, milk and beer -- for a trader to buy a large stock of food to resell it at a higher price.Granma said eight employees of the store -- owned by Cimex Corporation, which is state-run but subject to the laws applicable to private enterprise -- had been dismissed.Cuba imports almost all the food consumed by its 11 million inhabitants, including apples, according to the official site Cubadebate.The island is seeking to reform its Soviet-style economic model: a new constitution to replace the 1976 version has been approved by parliament and submitted to public debate.In a bid to improve its supply of food products, Cuba´s government recently extended the area and allowed period of cultivation granted to the island nation´s farmers.

from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2NQkZGI

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