“Food is becoming a problem to which most of the inhabitants cannot find a solution. We know that we have to stay in the house so that the COVID-19 does not spread, but we have to bring food home every day, and much more now that the children are at home all the time,” says Ana Julia, a neighbor of the Airport neighborhood, in this city.
Las Tunas, Cuba.– We talk with Adairis near 7th Street. She shares her concern: “We understand that we're in an epidemiological and economic crisis, but the food is getting more difficult to find, especially in the outlying areas. We can't buy a pound of pork or chicken, not even mincemeat. We need an effective strategy to be able to acquire the products without having to spend all day in a queue, risking our health”.
We don't want variety, nor quality, we are satisfied with eggs, mincemeat and croquettes, but that they are available in one unit without having to make so many queues. There are regular stores which are supplied frequently, but not mine”, says Julio Cesar, 68 years old and retired.
Opinions like these abound among the local population. The local authorities have declared that the agglomerations of people, mainly to acquire food, constitute one of the main obstacles that persist in the confrontation of the new coronavirus.
MORE PROMINENCE OF REGULAR STORES OF MAIN SUPPLIES
The Domestic Trade sector, in line with the policy implemented throughout the country and as part of the Plan for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 in the territory, is implementing a series of measures that ensure a better redistribution of supplies. These measures bring the supplies closer to the regular stores and with the premise of reaching the greatest possible number of people.
Rolando Rodríguez Rojas, director of the Business Group of Commerce in the province, exposed in the radio and television program Alto y Claro, which is devised for the analysis of social problems by the main authorities of the province, that currently, 192 cafeterias are working as processing centers and that together with the 10 usual food production centers of the Balcony of Eastern Cuba, they make sausages, croquettes, hamburgers and other meat varieties.
The priority is to create diverse offers," said the manager, "in the processing centers many products are made depending on the raw materials available. We have expanded the confectionery and the strategy is to bring these varieties to the regular stores and sell them through the card of main supplies, so as to avoid hoarding and resellers.
“The production process is going well. One of the limitations we face is related to wheat flour, and we have applied the ingenuity of extending this raw material with cassava and cornflour, in order to multiply the offers and with the necessary quality”.
