Ceballos Industry begins production of cassava flour and starch

The agroindustrial company Ceballos, from Ciego de Ávila,began to produce cassava starch and flour in the midst of a crisis due to a sugar and packaging deficit and in a context of food shortages in the country.

After ending 2022 with huge losses that amounted to 69.8 million pesos, the company's directors had to implement other strategies that would guarantee them generating profits and covering the inputs and raw materials required by the factory, as revealed in a note from the company.Cuban News Agency (ACN).

Aníbal Antonio Hernández Arteaga, director of the UEB, belonging to Ceballos, told that medium that they had to adapt a press that was used in citrus fruits to obtain the new products in a context marked by a serious shortage of wheat flour in the country.

To dry the flour they use a chamber that was used in the ripening of bananas and "they carry out negotiations with third parties" to obtain more aluminum and stainless steel trays.

"These assortments constitute a production possibility in the face ofshortage of packaging and sugar employees in our industry in the production of sweets, jams and juices," said the manager.

In the case of starch, which is also another of the products that they began to produce, they intend to use it internally in the different tomato sauces where this additive that was previously imported is added.

The million-dollar losses last year were due, the note specified, to the decrease in sales, the high level of interest on bank loans and the increase in the price of the resources needed in each of the production processes.

"Given these realities, work is being done to cover all the empty hectares with fruit plantations and various crops, such as mango, guava, mamey, cherimoya, cassava and hot pepper, among others," the media said.

Although at the end of 2022 the company assured thatThey had a rotation systemof cultivation houses that allow them to obtain continuous production, and they had been able to stabilize the supply to the Jardines del Rey tourist center and other hotel plants in Varadero, they currently have to resort to other strategies to generate profits.

In addition to practices to alleviate the deficit of agricultural inputs, the company maintains a payment system for its workers that is linked to the results of the harvests.

Faced with the national crisis due to the shortage of wheat flour for the production of breads, sweets, cookies and other foods, options are being applied in the country that seek to mitigate the lack of this primary component, and cassava is the product most bet the Cuban food industry.

A plant in Cienfuegosstabilized the production of cassava flour, and inother provinces It is used as a substitute for wheat flour.