Construction of the largest feed factory in Cuba paralyzed since 2019

The Cuban government wants to “recover feed production,” but the lack of inputs causes delays in the assembly of the largest animal feed factory in the country, located in Santiago de Cuba, andof which only 10% has been completed since its construction began in 2019.

“At times whenthe low production levels of pork and its unattainable price for the majority of Cubans They impose, among the actions to reverse the situation, recover feed production, the streamlining of the investment process in what will be the largest animal feed factory in the country could contribute a lot to this," said an article published this Tuesday in the official organ. of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC).

After recognizingthe food deficit What do they mean for the Cuban population?high pork prices (the beef one is not even mentioned), the articleGranma He pointed out the problems facing the assembly of what will be the largest feed factory in the country.

"The truth is that progress is slowed by the delay in imported metals that will allow the technological assembly, as well as by the lack of ten piles that remain to be driven," said engineer Greny Margarita Silva Pérez, representatives of the business unit of base (UEB) Santiago de Cuba, of the National Agricultural Projects Company (ENPA)

Furthermore, "to build the warehouse with a capacity for 10,000 tons, in addition to not having its metal structure, there is a lack of resources for the raft foundation." During a visit to the enclave, engineers Silva Pérez and Kailer Nieto Simón explained to the official media that “the protruding corrugated steel bars” that can be seen in the area “have been waiting for more than a year for the metal structure that will house the assembly of the technological production modules”.

This structure has been the subject of hesitation by the project's designers. Initially, its elements were contracted from the foreign supplier. Then, it was decided to build them in Cuba, and finally it was decided again to hire them from foreign companies, according toGranma, “in the face of the extreme material and financial limitations due to the intensification of the United States economic blockade.”

Likewise, the project faces "the unstable supply of finishing resources, such as accessories for electrical installations, and hydrosanitary and metal carpentry installations, which would give the final touch" to the buildings surrounding the industrial warehouse, dedicated to administrative personnel.

The delays in the works are difficult to assimilate when the country is going through one of the worst crises in its history and families are hit by the“ordering” of the economy implemented byMiguel Díaz-Canel's executive; a failed policy that has triggered inflation and exacerbatedfood shortages, pharmaceutical shortages and deficiencies of all kinds in the population, including the collapse of public services that served as a front for the dictatorship.

The delays become even more difficult to assimilate, when since 2019 - when the work began - all the advanced technological equipment required by the factory to produce 500 to 600 tons of animal feed per 12-hour shift was already in Cuba.

Improvising on the fly, something that insocialist state enterprises Known as “innovation” or “creative alternatives”, a small assembly brigade is dedicated to recovering some silos that had not been used for around 20 years to “substitute imports”.

“These are very expensive silos that were set up in the Polvorín area and were never used; hence they present a certain level of oxidation in galvanized zinc sheets, joints and screws; And although it made disassembling for the transfer cumbersome, now it is more difficult to assemble them here, explained the person responsible for the task.

Both the recovered silos and the technological modules purchased three years ago will now have to be inspected and their operation verified “so that, when the time comes for the expected start-up, unforeseen events do not arise.”

“Due to its high impact on food production, the will of the country's leadership is to finish this factory, and although situations such as the United States blockade, the priorities of confronting COVID-19 and the global crisis have hindered the advance, another pace will be imposed by the alternatives adopted,” concluded the general director of the Eastern Feed Production Company, Abrahán Cabrera Toledano, a well-trained cadre in the official argument.