Hugo Cancio and Katapulk will launch their food brand at FIHAV 2023: "De Cancio Foods"

November 7, 2023

From car imports to a food brand: Katapulk and Hugo Cancio continue to expand in the Cuban market.

Katapulk, one of Cuban-American businessman Hugo Cancio's companies, will launch the "De Cancio Foods" food brand during the upcoming International Havana Fair (FIHAV 2023), to be held from the 6th to the 11th of this month.

The news was announced on Katapulk's Instagram page, where additional details about the company's participation in the Cuban trade fair were provided.

According to the information, Katapulk representatives, in addition to launching the new food brand, will be clarifying questions about vehicle imports, one of the company's main lines of business.

Additionally, Katapulk will sponsor a panel discussion with entrepreneurs and economists on "obstacles and opportunities for entrepreneurship in Cuba," will launch the OnCuba Business magazine, also by Hugo Cancio, and will call for the "Entrepreneur of the Year" contest.

In September of this year, the Food Monitor Program (FMP), an independent group monitoring food insecurity on the Island, criticized Katapulk for selling food at inflated prices.

"While Cuba suffers a profound food crisis, online businesses like Katapulk, owned by Cuban-American Hugo Cancio, sell food well above its value," the FMP indicated in a thread on X, formerly Twitter.

Similarly, the independent initiative questioned that Katapulk commercialized "items such as meat, dairy and fish at prices that are between three and eight times above their real market value. For example, milk, a basic and essential food item, is sold at prices of 65 dollars (5 kg) and 289 dollars (25 kg)".

The Katapulk company belongs to Fuego Enterprises Inc. (with capital of 19.1 million dollars), founded by Cuban-American Hugo Cancio on December 30, 2004 in Miami, Florida.

Cancio, also owner of OnCuba magazine, is not a simple Cuban-American ally of the regime. In the Barack Obama administration he stood out as one of the main faces of the diplomatic thaw between Cuba and the United States.