It has survived an economic blockade for almost 50 years but Cuba has finally been laid low by a key shortage: lavatory paper.
The state-run company that manufactures the island's supply has warned that the economic crisis and a series of devastating hurricanes has left it unable to guarantee it will be able to produce or import sufficient supplies again until the end of the year.
"The corporation has taken all the steps so that at the end of the year there will be an important importation of toilet paper," said a spokesman for the state conglomerate Cimex. The shipment will enable the state-run company "to supply this demand that today is presenting problems", he added.
Cuba both imports lavatory paper and produces its own, but does not currently have enough raw materials to make it, he said.
President Raul Castro told the national assembly in Havana last week that the government had cut its budget for the second time this year. Few had expected that a decision to cut imports by 20 per cent to save government funds would have a knock on effect in the smallest room of every Cuban home, with lavatory paper among the products that have been disappearing from the shelves of state-run stores.
Hotels are expected to weather the unfortunate shortage by importing their own supply.
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