Blue, yellow and green masks are on display at the Elanova point of sale, one of the first small private companies to emerge in Cuba since the sector was made more flexible to so-called SMEs. This weekend a Fair at the Linea Cultural Station, in Havana’s Vedado, shows the products of this new economic modality.
Dozens of people gathered around the Elanova store this Saturday, who were in a queue for more than an hour to enter the venue and then had to queue up at the different kiosks. The premises with the highest demand were precisely those of self-employed workers and MSMEs (micro, small and medium-sized companies), while state-owned companies attracted less attention.
But many of those who approached private offers came away empty-handed after checking prices. “The package of ten disposable masks costs 100 Cuban pesos and it seems expensive to me because it is something to use and throw away, they should be cheaper,” laments a woman who approached the position of this company that has only been founded a few months.
However, the employees clarify that the prices of the products are in line with the amount invested in the raw material. The complicated network of importing materials, moving them and meeting all management payments does not allow discounts. Many curious who come do not even want to buy masks but to inquire about the process to open a small private company, of which there are already more than 600 in the country.
“At first the procedures are cumbersome and very difficult but hope cannot be lost. The first steps are taken in the labor body and then in the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT)”, explains an Elanova employee. “You don’t have to give up and you have to be very patient because it’s complicated.”
Despite the initial bitter drinks, the worker considers that the small company that also makes pillows, cushions, foam mattresses and bedding is doing well and its products are in high demand. But, they must regularly appeal to travelers to import materials that they cannot find in the national market and that would be very expensive to bring into the country through state-owned companies.
“Next month we are going to open our own store that will be called El Olimpo and it will be in front of the José Martí de Guanabacoa park,” explains the employee with a tone of pride for the growth that the place will give to the new venture. Now they produce up to 200,000 masks a day that will continue to be the main offer when they open their doors to customers.
A few meters from stand from Elanova, the green and yellow scrubbing sponges were the only offering at the Zaas point of sale! another of the MSMEs that presents its confections at the Opportunities Fair. The employees move quickly and quickly sell large quantities of a product that is in short supply in the network of state stores. One buyer fills the backpack and another comes out with his hands full of the product.
“We went through a lot of work to establish ourselves as MSMEs but we have finally succeeded and our product has been very well received,” explains a worker who does not stop moving from the counter to the boxes in which they have brought thousands of sponges. On one wall, you can read the brief company motto: “… and it was cleaned.”
The spaces of state management are recognized from afar. They hardly have customers and many only display the so-called idle merchandise that “has no way out” in official warehouses. Spark plugs, some screwdrivers and wrenches for mechanical work are shown in the stand of the Logistics Business Group of the Ministry of Agriculture (Gelma) that has brought its “slow-moving products.”
But the greatest interest of those who arrived this Saturday at Linea corner with 18, was captured -without a doubt- by the Prodanco interior and exterior paint business. The long queue in front of the point of sale is full of customers waiting to buy a product that for more than two years has only appeared in stores in freely convertible currency (MLC).
“The paintings are expensive, this tank cost me more than 2,000 pesos but I do not have foreign currency to buy so it is this option or go to the black market where they already cheated me once and sold me a very bad painting,” he explains to this newspaper a customer who opted for a white vinyl for interiors.
The Prodanco team also works with orders that they receive two days in advance and allow to prepare the paint tone to the buyer’s taste, but delays in the arrival of the raw material sometimes compromise deliveries in the agreed time. “The arrival and dispatch mechanism in the Port of Mariel is not working efficiently and that delays us,” acknowledges a worker.
As he talks, they are also dispatching oil paint, enamel, and vinyl for facades. In a few hours, workers have to restock the point of sale and the queue continues to grow around them. “There is a lot of need and these small companies cannot cope with a country where there are houses that have not been painted for decades,” warns a client who had been in line for more than two hours.
“This Fair is an option to buy but it is also showing that MSMEs are going very slowly, that their creation must be accelerated because there is a lot of accumulated demand. If they were to sell rusty nails, they would also have buyers because the problem is that here there is almost nothing, “he adds.
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