Güines, Mayabeque – “Capitalism must be uprooted, parasitism must be uprooted, the exploitation of man must be uprooted,” cried Fidel Castro in 1968 to rapturous applause, explaining his decision to ban virtually all private business in Cuba.

For Castro, the fundamental problem was that capitalists live off the work of others – creating “man as the enemy of man” rather than an “instinct for solidarity” among people.

Now, more than half a century later – and after decades of anguished debate – the Communist Party of Cuba is allowing private businesses to spring up on the island. Since 2021, Cubans have been able to incorporate small and medium-sized businesses which can employ up to 100 people. More than 8,000 have already been registered.

The private sector is roaring back, bringing with it more productivity but also more inequality to the island nation.

Roberto Rojas, who has a portrait of Fidel Castro in his office, incorporated Rojas Dairy 18 months ago in the town of Güines in Western Cuba. Today, his company employs 28 people to make yoghurt and ice cream and unlike the former commandante, he sees no contradiction between a socialist state and private business.

“On the contrary,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have examples in the world: Vietnam and China – they have sustainable economies.”

Rojas Dairy is something of a poster child of young, innovative, socially-responsible businesses. It pasteurises milk in large metal vats that Rojas found in a rubbish tip and mended. The factory is based in an old state canteen that had fallen into disrepair before Rojas gave it a lick of paint and started renting it.

Crucially, for a cash-strapped country in which putting a decent meal on the table has become a harder task in recent years, the business produces food.

Milk is bought from the state, while cocoa, stabiliser and colouring are imported from abroad. Townspeople come with their own bottles and containers to fill up with yoghurt they can just about afford. And thanks to local production, the town’s ice cream parlour, which had been shuttered for a decade, has recently opened again.

Rojas’ employees have a spring in their step and are earning handsome salaries.

“The difference is enormous,” said Jakcel Conteras, a former vet’s assistant who is now one of hundreds of thousands of Cubans working in the private sector. “When I worked for the state, I earned 800 to 900 pesos a month, now I earn between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos a month.”

Other small businesses have recently popped up around the town’s centre: mainly kiosks selling imported goods like cooking oil, toilet paper and detergent. Some locals seem pleased with the extra choice.

“It’s the best thing they’ve ever done,” Luís Alberto Rodríguez said of the government while out shopping with his bike. Private businesses are “where you can find the most products – the [state] stores are practically empty”.

Others complain they simply cannot afford what is on sale. Most workers earn state salaries, which are paid in low-value pesos – when converted, the average salary works out to about $21 – while the private sector imports products using hard currency.