The energy crisis facing Cuba, aggravated by the blockage of fuel shipments to the Caribbean island imposed by the United States, is threatening the very existence of thousands of small and micro-enterprises in the country. A study by the Auge consultancy, published this month, indicates that 96.4% of Cuban SMEs are entirely dependent on fuel to survive and are likely to suffer an impact ranging from severe to catastrophic if the crisis lasts too long.
The consultancy’s survey listed 9,200 micro, small and medium private enterprises facing a daily routine of blackouts lasting up to 20 hours and a fuel shortage that generates parallel market prices of up to US$6 per liter.
Impacts vary. The 7,491 (81.1% of the total) companies in sectors where fuel is part of the production process and classified as critical cannot perform activities such as starting machinery, cooking, refrigerating inputs or products, transportation, and irrigation. The study cites concrete examples of idle textile workshops and restaurants that lose all their stock due to lack of refrigeration.
Another 1,413 (15.3%) face a high impact, which could lead to closure if the crisis prolongs. In these cases, the difficulties are those common to people who need electricity for lighting, especially in retail and offices. These places can still operate with daylight, but can only sell non-perishable products.
The 332 small businesses at moderate risk (3.6% of the total) can resist without having their existence threatened, but require some adaptation. They are services, such as consultants, that can operate while the battery life of their laptops lasts.
Read also: Health, water supply and precarious transport: living in Cuba is unbearable
The study uses official data from Cuba’s 2024 Statistical Yearbook (ONEI) and warns that behind every number there is an entrepreneur, a family, a life project. “These 9,236 SMEs are not just statistics: they are the effort of thousands of Cubans who have bet on building something of their own in the last decade. They do not form a marginal sector: they represent the most dynamic productive fabric that has emerged since the 2010 opening,” notes Oniel Díaz Castellanos, the study’s author.
He also says that what matters is not just size, but where these companies are located and what they do. For example, Havana, the capital, concentrates 43% of the country’s private business fabric. Thus, what happens in the capital — the outages, the limited availability of fuel, the import measures — will determine the fate of nearly 4,000 companies.
By December 2025, AUGE had already interviewed 175 leaders of micro, small and medium enterprises for its first Business Climate Study. At that time, the threat of an energy crisis appeared not as an abstract concern, but as a real operational vulnerability.
Read also: The cigar industry is also a victim of the crisis in Cuba; the Festival del Habano is postponed
A significant number of companies had already made investments to mitigate their impact. “The study revealed that 48% of companies had already invested to deal with the energy crisis: solar panels, generators, batteries. What was then a preventive measure has now become a condition for survival,” says the consultancy.
But there was also a troubling finding: the remaining 52% could not or did not prioritize this investment. For them, the shutdown is now imminent.
