With cassava flour, rice and dairy whey, the Business Group of the Food Industry intends to cover the deficit of raw materials for food production in Camagüey. The state company, which directs the work of almost a hundred companies, hopes that this measure will boost production in the territory, although it recognizes that it will be insufficient to meet demand.
The Group has made investments in the remodeling of the slaughter line and in the dairy plant in the province, the country’s key supplier in the livestock sector. In statements to Camaguey Television, the director Juan Carlos Domínguez, president of the state company, stated that without substitute raw materials they would not even be able to keep basic production active.
“This commits us to the fact that, in 2023, we must reach better production levels than we have this year,” Domínguez promised with the usual triumphant rhetoric, but admitted that “we will not reach what people demand, but we will have a improvement in the offer.
Regarding the idea of using rice, whey and cassava flour, the official attributed it to the fact that “people have a high power of creativity.”
Regarding the idea of using rice, whey and cassava flour, the official attributed it to the fact that “people have a high power of creativity”
For months, bakeries have turned to other ingredients, such as sweet potatoes, cassava, plantains or rice residue, to try to meet the demand. However, it has been impossible to meet the bread Production Plans, also hampered by the shortage of fuel to feed the ovens.
The state company closed last week with 60,000 units of bread less than those necessary to meet the demand of Guantánamo, a situation that was repeated in Holguín, where the Provincial Government indicated that production stopped on Friday due to the already foreseeable lack of fuel and flour.
As usual, the Cuban government pointed out to the blocking from the United States, but Yanet Lomba Estupiñán, technical director of the Cuban Milling Company, ventilated in Cubadebate that the country does not guarantee stable financing for the purchase of cereals. In the media itself, he alleges, referring to national directors, that the “human factor” affects the quality of bread more than the lack of raw materials.
For the transportation by ship of the necessary flour to cover the national demand, between 14 and 16 million dollars are necessary. However, the government only pays for one or two containers, when basic production would require at least four. Added to this is the fact that the flour available on the island in recent weeks has “very poor quality,” according to Yuneisi Tamayo Lamorú, technical head of the Cereals Base Business Unit (UEB).
National mills are also facing a flight of personnel due to low wages. Lomba Estupiñán pointed out that in the first half of 2022 alone, the Cuban Milling Company suffered 200 casualties and fears that by the end of the year the figure will reach 500, out of a basic workforce of 1,700 workers.
For the official, the instability of the personnel also affects the quality of the product, because the workers cannot be trained in “two or three months.” “There is a tendency to blame the flour for the quality of the bread. The flour is the same, therefore, it is not possible that in Havana the bread has a quality and that in Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Camagüey you can’t make good bread with that same flour,” he said.
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