Havana/“Cenitor”, “Chiquito” and “Hard” are the adjectives with which the population of Sancti Spíritus describes to the official press the bread he receives for the basic basket. After going out interview To the people, the provincial newspaper Escambray He confirmed what years ago is a reality throughout the island: food rarely reaches the wineries and, when it comes, “there is no one who can consume it.”
The spirit, little accustomed to the press inquiring on these issues, tense in front of the journalist – very much in hand – that asks them to tell the situation. Some have a hard time talking but, once the first criticism was issued, the challenge of problems that bread production has in the province is left alone: ”He spent several days without coming”, “It’s a cookie”, “He gets blue”, “They have peseta size” or “if you leave it from one day to another it puts ash.” To top it off, “nobody explains anything,” says an interviewee.
In search of the long -awaited explanation, the newspaper reached the Olivos III bakery where, he says, they are not made “deaf ears” to the complaints of citizens. However, and without making a direct criticism, the local managers claim that not everything is in their hands. In February “the sale of the PAN has been somewhat limited by the entry of raw materials to ours warehouses. Especially the first days of the month (…) but flour is already arriving at the warehouses and 60 grams bread is taking place, ”said Héctor Borges, the administrator.
The blackouts are another Goliath with which the company can barely deal with. At the moment, in Olivos III the alternative is “to move to other prioritized bakeries with the current of the current or that have the generator set.”
Local managers ensure that food never reaches consumers in poor condition
However, the local managers ensure that food never reaches consumers in poor condition. “If you suddenly fall [la corriente]the same quality does not have the mass. It gets acidic ”, and so it is not given to the wineries. What there is and the client who could not buy is distributed, the next day he is given double bread, a worker holds.
Even with that precaution, Olivos III cannot guarantee good bread. “It is affected to some extent by the quality of the flours. Not all flours are the same, ”laments Borges. “The teams with which the entity is not new, are teams that break, that have old resistance, which are repaired, that have steam escapes, and all that threatens moisture, against weight, against size against The color “of the bread, adds.
To this is added, add Escambraythe lack of “human capital” and the “necessary ingredients.”
The provincial food industry company offers the newspaper, not satisfied with the response of Olivos III, similar justifications: scarcity and poor quality of raw materials, blackouts that “kill” the flora of the dough and rare equipment. Although he says he plans to acquire “technology with renewable energy, which is very difficult for this cooking bakery system because it has a lot of energy”.
On the “extensors” – cassava, banana and other materials to grow the dough -, which according to Escambray “They had come to relieve” the elaboration, they are not being used because the flour has no quality, said the company’s manager.
Contrary to the director’s statement, the situation of the PAN in Sancti Spíritus has worsened in the last year
To the question of the newspaper if it is “a chimera” to expect that the low quality of the bread ceases to be a frequent issue in the spirit of spirit, the manager replies that no. But his argument is the usual official voluntarism: “What we have is to go to do more than we have, work more, demand more, watch more, and every day take a bit of the problem.”
Contrary to the director’s statement, the PAN situation in Sancti Spíritus has worsened in the last year. Not only the product that reaches the wineries continues to suffer the decrease in the weight that the State promised that it would be temporary, but not even the private ones have managed to find enough flour to meet the demand.
A reportage Posted days ago by 14ymedio account for the problems that even MSMEs They have to acquire the flour. Some have even been forced to ration the amount of breads and sweets sold by each client.
The bag of 25 kilograms of wheat flour, imported mainly from Turkey, costs in the informal market of the province between 9,000 and 10,000 pesos, but merchants warn that they only sell “by quantities.” Little stores cannot keep their pulse and prefer not to buy some volumes of a product that they do not know if they can end up becoming a crunchy and tasty bread.
With the missing flour of the panorama, the spirit who acquired bread for 200 pesos in private businesses have resigned themselves to buy the intermittent product of the winery, to 75 cents the unit.
That is another reality with which it has encountered Escambray In his baker survey: “One takes the bread because he has to take it.”
