National rules

Can you sell backyard eggs in Cuba?

Cuba: sanitary licenses are mandatory for any food-related activity, and sellers of farm products must be in the Central Commercial Register. No license exemption for a household selling its eggs was found.

Read from 7 official sources63 passages quotedChecked November 2, 2026

At a glance

License

License or permit

Small-flock line

No small-seller threshold found; a sanitary license is required for any food-related activity

Farmers markets

Not stated

Cartons

Not stated

In plain English

Cuba's food-safety rules apply to everyone in the food chain, and the sanitary and veterinary sanitary licenses, as applicable, are a mandatory requirement for food-related activities of any kind (Decreto 18/2020, arts. 2, 36.1 and 37). They are applied for at municipal or provincial centers where the activity will take place and granted after a sanitary inspection; the requirements are set by the regulators under the Ministries of Public Health or Agriculture (arts. 35, 36.2). Not having the Sanitary License, or not displaying it, is an infraction for natural persons (art. 94(a)). People who sell agricultural and forestry products must also be entered in the Central Commercial Register and hold the sanitary, veterinary sanitary and environmental licenses established (Decreto 143/2025, art. 17). No small-seller threshold or license exemption for a household selling its eggs was found in the texts read on 2026-11-02, and the regulators' license requirements were not read.

A sourced reading of the rules in Cuba, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Agriculture regulators (sanitary and veterinary sanitary licenses); Centro Nacional de Sanidad Animal, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture (animal health and welfare) before you sell.

Do you need a license?

License or permit requiredNo small-seller threshold found; a sanitary license is required for any food-related activity
  • The sanitary license is applied for at the municipal or provincial center where food will be produced, processed, packed, sold, stored or distributed, and is granted after a sanitary inspection once the regulators' requirements are met.Decreto 18/2020, art. 36.2
  • Food handlers must be trained in food safety and need a pre-employment and periodic medical examination; a medical certificate of physical and mental health is required for the Sanitary License of food handlers.Decreto 18/2020, arts. 4(a), 42
  • People who sell agricultural and forestry products must be entered in the Central Commercial Register and hold the sanitary, veterinary sanitary and environmental licenses established.Decreto 143/2025, art. 17
  • Not having the Sanitary License, or not displaying it in a visible place, is an infraction for natural persons, with a fine of 500 to 1,000 Cuban pesos and the obligation to comply (Decreto 18/2020, art. 94(a)); self-employed workers are fined in line with the amounts set in their sector's own legislation.art. 96
  • Food intended for human consumption needs the Sanitary Register certificate to be marketed (Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 60); the implementing regulation requires that certificate for food sold directly to the consumer under a brand and with a specific name (Decreto 18/2020, art. 48). A Ministry of Public Health resolution published on 30 October 2020 exempts bulk and short-shelf-life products from Sanitary Register inscription (Resolución 262/2020, art. 9; its later status was not checked). Whether eggs need the certificate was not established.
The exact wording
“Artículo 36.1. Las licencias Sanitaria y Sanitaria Veterinaria son un requisito obligatorio para el ejercicio de actividades de cualquier índole relacionadas con alimentos.”

Where you can sell

From home or the farm

Not stated

No farm-gate rule for eggs was found. Retail sale of agricultural and forestry products is open to state enterprises, farm cooperatives, non-farm cooperatives set up for it, legitimate landholders, self-employed workers authorized to sell on the move, and micro, small and medium enterprises, non-farm cooperatives and self-employed workers with a commercial license (Decreto 143/2025, art. 27.1). Eggs are not named in that decree, and whether a household that keeps hens may sell its eggs directly was not established.

Farmers markets

Not stated

No egg rule for markets was found. Retail forms of farm-product sale are retail farm markets, agromarkets, points of sale and itinerant sale; points of sale include urban, suburban and family agriculture (Decreto 143/2025, arts. 28, 30). Producers and sellers of food in markets, fairs and street outlets are responsible for complying with the food-safety technical standards and rules (Decreto 18/2020, art. 62).

Stores and restaurants

Not stated

Farm cooperatives, legitimate landholders, state enterprises, and micro, small and medium enterprises, non-farm cooperatives and self-employed workers may sell farm and forest products directly in the network of retail shops (Decreto 143/2025, art. 25), and farm and forest producers may sell their produce there if they hold the authorizations and certifications required (Ministry of Agriculture Resolución 16/2026, art. 21, as reworded by Resolución 161/2026). Shops that specialize in selling food at retail must require from their supplier a guarantee of the product's safety through a Declaration of Conformity (Decreto 18/2020, art. 57). No rule on a household flock supplying shops or restaurants was found, and whether a household that keeps hens counts as a farm producer was not established.

Cartons, labels and handling

Cartons

The sources we read don't set a carton rule.

Refrigeration

Not stated in the sources we read.

The label must show

  • All food: information for the consumer in Spanish or, failing that, English, so the next person in the chain can handle, store, prepare and use it safely (Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 69)
  • Bulk food (food that is not packaged and is in direct contact with the transport surface and the air, Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 70): instructions available and visible to consumers during sale (Decreto 18/2020, art. 67); whether eggs sold loose count as bulk was not established
  • Pre-packaged food: labels meeting the national technical standards (Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 72); those standards were not read
  • Bulk food for consumption: the container must be sealed so the food is not altered and must carry the product name, maker, production and expiry dates, lot and sanitary certificate numbers, and seal or marking number (Decreto 18/2020, art. 68.2); whether this reaches eggs sold loose was not established

Grading

Not stated in the sources we read.

Washing

Not stated in the sources we read.

Pricing your dozen? The egg price calculator works it out from your feed bill.

Keeping chickens in Cuba? →Registration, bird-flu housing orders and welfare rules, on their own page.Registration: conditions

Common questions

Can I sell eggs from my backyard chickens in Cuba, and do I need a license?
Cuba: sanitary licenses are mandatory for any food-related activity, and sellers of farm products must be in the Central Commercial Register. No license exemption for a household selling its eggs was found. Small-flock line: no small-seller threshold found; a sanitary license is required for any food-related activity. The conditions, and the law they come from, are on this page.
Can I sell eggs at a farmers market in Cuba?
Not stated in the sources we read. No egg rule for markets was found. Retail forms of farm-product sale are retail farm markets, agromarkets, points of sale and itinerant sale; points of sale include urban, suburban and family agriculture (Decreto 143/2025, arts. 28, 30). Producers and sellers of food in markets, fairs and street outlets are responsible for complying with the food-safety technical standards and rules (Decreto 18/2020, art. 62).
Can I reuse egg cartons in Cuba?
The sources we read do not say; ask the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Agriculture regulators (sanitary and veterinary sanitary licenses); Centro Nacional de Sanidad Animal, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture (animal health and welfare) before reusing cartons for eggs you sell.
What has to be on the carton label in Cuba?
All food: information for the consumer in Spanish or, failing that, English, so the next person in the chain can handle, store, prepare and use it safely (Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 69), Bulk food (food that is not packaged and is in direct contact with the transport surface and the air, Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 70): instructions available and visible to consumers during sale (Decreto 18/2020, art. 67); whether eggs sold loose count as bulk was not established, Pre-packaged food: labels meeting the national technical standards (Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 72); those standards were not read, Bulk food for consumption: the container must be sealed so the food is not altered and must carry the product name, maker, production and expiry dates, lot and sanitary certificate numbers, and seal or marking number (Decreto 18/2020, art. 68.2); whether this reaches eggs sold loose was not established. The rule reads: "Artículo 69. Los alimentos van acompañados de la información al consumidor, en español o, en su defecto, en inglés, para que la persona que interviene en la siguiente etapa de la cadena alimentaria pueda manipular, exponer, almacenar, preparar y utilizar el producto de manera inocua y correcta."
Sources
Read the 63 passages this page is built on
What we couldn't confirm
  • The food-safety decree-law and its regulation (2020), the animal welfare decree-law and its regulation (2021), the veterinary-medicine decree-law and its regulation (2026) and the farm-product marketing decree (annotated version, 2026) were read in the Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba on 2026-11-02. The Gaceta's pages for the food-safety and animal welfare texts list no modifying or repealing norm; later changes not shown there were not checked.
  • The requirements that the Ministries of Public Health and Agriculture set for the sanitary licenses were not read, nor the rules on self-employment, the Central Commercial Register, the food sovereignty law (Ley 148/2022) and its regulation, or the Ministry of Agriculture's marketing regulation (Resolución 16/2026; only its art. 21 as reworded by Resolución 161/2026 was read); whether a household selling a few eggs is in practice issued or required to hold a license was not established.
  • No egg grading, carton or storage temperature rule was found in the texts read. Containers and packaging in contact with food must meet the technical standards in force and be approved by the regulators (Decreto 18/2020, art. 4(c)); the national technical standards these texts refer to (for example for labels, Decreto-Ley 9/2020, art. 72) were not read, and whether any of them covers eggs was not established.
  • The basic sanitary provisions decree-law of 1982 (Decreto-Ley 54) is listed on the Gaceta website as modified, but its text is not published there and was not read; whether it limits keeping animals in towns was not established.
  • No official page showing current animal disease or bird flu measures was found.

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