Since the first Saturday of December, the Food Industry brought to the popular councils varied productions, an initiative in tune with the needs of the inhabitants of Las Tunas that should be sustainable in the future months.

The Food fair, as it has been popularly called, is now an event that people are looking forward to, to ensure the "snack", especially for the children at home. From the challenge of putting more food on the table of each family and guaranteeing variety and quality in the assortments, not only the initiative of bringing the products to the popular councils arose. Today, several projects are being "cooked" within the entity, seeking to secure raw materials in deficit to keep its production lines afloat and even to promote others.

Alberto Fonseca Rodríguez, at the head of the entity, shared with 26 the goals that today move them to seek the improvement of services and the materialization of projects that will translate into great benefits for the people of La Tunas, just when they are going through a context of scarcity of resources and high prices in the informal market.

"The initiative to take food to the popular councils was born in the context of the COVID-19 and we want to extend it to the new scenarios. We started the fairs in the Popular Council 17 of the municipality of Las Tunas; we are looking for areas of high population density, and we are working together with the highest authorities and the Community Workgroups," the director said.

"We are carrying around 14 assortments that have been very well received. These events have been well organized and were conceived to avoid hoarding.”

"Even when we have serious wheat flour limitations, we adopted strategies to diversify the options. We are promoting the slogan: 'The Food Industry is much more than bread,' because we can offer other assortments for sale.”

"We are currently preparing for the future. We are committed to guaranteeing the greatest possible quantity of packaging, including cans, nylon, plastic knobs. We have even considered the possibility of buying cans for packaging cookies, as in previous years, to guarantee their transportation and to reach the consumer with a better presence".

KEYS TO GROWTH

Recently, the entity approved new prices for seven products that will be very soon in the commercial networks. They have already announced that they are going to work on the peanut line, a long-standing desire of the population.

"We will offer corn-based products in various formats and we want to make tamales in a casserole, a proposal that is rarely seen in Las Tunas and that customers will surely appreciate.

"We have different goals and a great desire to work. We also want to rescue the natural juices that are not offered in the territory, and we are getting ready to face a tomato harvest that we hope will be one of the best in recent years. We do not even want it to be only puree, we are preparing a business team to look for more variety based on this line.

HAND IN HAND WITH FOREIGN INVESTMENT

"Concerning foreign investment, we are promoting several projects. We are going to provide a qualified, competitive labor force and adequate workspaces, in which we are already working, and we hope that the investors will assure us the technology and raw material.”

Fonseca Rodríguez advanced that he has made preliminary contacts with South American investors, who could secure wheat flour on a large scale, enough to guarantee the productions of the whole province. "We hope that our agreements materialize," he expressed.

"We are engaged in issues linked to the development of the municipalities, our goal is to achieve homogeneous progress. Today in Las Tunas there are no jams and we are working to revert that situation that seems inconceivable to us. We also have a project of a mayonnaise line, one for bottling and marketing water, and an ice factory.

“WITH OUR HANDS IN THE DOUGH”

The Food Industry is perhaps one of the areas where the economic blockade has had the hardest impact. The deficit of raw materials has increased in the context of COVID-19 and hit the trade networks.

Despite the harshness of the past, in Las Tunas, the situation has been reversed; the fairs in the localities have increased sales and, to date, show very promising results. "We are in a recovery stage - the manager pointed out -, the impact of the blockade was felt in the operation of all our structures: 85 bakeries, 14 candy stores, nine canneries, two crackers factories, two noodle factories, and two ice plants, plus the Regulation and Control areas in each demarcation.”

"By 2022 we must change the matrix of the Company, achieve the productive linkage to seek the assurance of raw materials that are in deficit, and enhance micro and mini-industries, the future of our economy.

"We know we have the potential to move forward. We have a competent workforce and, above all, we are called by the will to grow, to approach the efficiency that our province requires. The Food Industry is more than bread, it is also many hands immersed in the best project: to guarantee food on the table of the people of Las Tunas.”