He pointed out that the Gross Domestic Product declined in 2020 on the order of 11%, thus any modest growth does not indicate an increase in the level of activity, since the economy will remain below what was achieved in 2019.

To support this projection, the gradual recovery of tourism is expected, projecting the arrival of close to 2.2 million international visitors, along with positive results in nickel exports and telecommunication services.

Alejandro Gil stated that the blockade’s pressure continues, constituting the main obstacle to country’s development, with an impact this last year exceeding 5.5 billion dollars, and over the most recent five-year period, 17 billion.

Such figures, he emphasized, represent between 12 and 15 million pesos per day and have an impact on all areas, especially healthcare, public transportation, water infrastructure and foreign investment.

Regarding the COVID-19 battle, he reported that associated expenses have already surpassed 300 million dollars, while the state budget has allocated some two billion pesos. However, he added, the indirect cost is much higher, given the necessary paralysis of some productive activities and services.

Regarding the monetary re-ordering task, the Minister reiterated that, although there have been design and implementation problems, the people have been heard, and mistaken decisions have been rectified, and some positive aspects can already be noted, which should become more visible in the future.

He mentioned that exports of goods have grown compared to the same period in 2020; more than 150,000 new jobs have been created; and a more effective and transparent system for measuring costs is evident.

Alejandro Gil commented that some 1,300 companies are generating earnings at the end of the period, while a few more than 500 show losses. This latter number, he said, is higher than in other periods, although many were in the same condition prior to the re-ordering, but were unaware of the fact, as a result of former practices.

Addressing the importance of the new monetary order, he explained that delaying it or applying it partially would have been more traumatic and destabilizing, pointing out that there are problems, especially limited supply in the market, which should not be blamed on the re-ordering.

The Minister remarked that the official exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Cuban peso of 1×24 is maintained, although in the informal market, given the impossibility of making foreign currency available to the population, the rate oscillates between 50 and 60 pesos on the informal market. He acknowledged that the country’s severe financial limitations have not allowed resolution, in the immediate term, of limited supply of basic goods on the market.

Despite of this situation, he stated, the Cuban government has not resorted to neoliberal or “shock therapy,” but is working on the adoption of strategies to increase food production, improve efficiency and strengthen state enterprises, as well as their links with other economic actors.

(Taken from Granma)

Despite of being hit by the economic, commercial and financial US blockade against Cuba for more than 60 years, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and blocking of the delay of some materials, THABA fulfilled its first quarter plan.

THABA´s corporate purpose is to commercialize leather products, whether manufactured or purchased. It is also aimed at manufacturing and selling latex goods, its by-products and other polymers.

María Eugenia Martínez, Communications director, told Negocios en Cuba magazine that coronavirus-related products and personal protection fittings are THABA´s top-priority.

In addition to those products included in its portfolio and to the coronavirus-related ones, THABA has proposed to manufacture wallets and purses by using different materials such as transparent plastic and canvas.

During the interview with Martínez, it was learned that THABA is currently applying science and technology in its production processes, and has reached agreements with the Universities of Pinar del Río, Havana, Cienfuegos and Las Tunas.

(Taken from Negocios en Cuba)
Havana Leather Company THABA keeps unstoppable paceHavana, Jun 13 (Prensa Latina) Havana Leather Company THABA, leader in domestic market and focused on productive linkages with other centers and in pursuit of import substitution, started this year at a good pace.

Despite of being hit by the economic, commercial and financial US blockade against Cuba for more than 60 years, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and blocking of the delay of some materials, THABA fulfilled its first quarter plan.

THABA´s corporate purpose is to commercialize leather products, whether manufactured or purchased. It is also aimed at manufacturing and selling latex goods, its by-products and other polymers.

María Eugenia Martínez, Communications director, told Negocios en Cuba magazine that coronavirus-related products and personal protection fittings are THABA´s top-priority.

In addition to those products included in its portfolio and to the coronavirus-related ones, THABA has proposed to manufacture wallets and purses by using different materials such as transparent plastic and canvas.

During the interview with Martínez, it was learned that THABA is currently applying science and technology in its production processes, and has reached agreements with the Universities of Pinar del Río, Havana, Cienfuegos and Las Tunas.

(Taken from Negocios en Cuba)

A few meters away, other hands, other faces, are following the process in the swab plant, with a production capacity that has allowed the delivery to the Ministry of Public Health of some 1,750,000 swabs since its start-up last March.

We are visiting the Center for Neurosciences of Cuba (Cneuro) medical supplies plant, in a building which until just months ago housed a biotherium for scientific research which required the use of experimental animals, but the facility was feeling the weight of the years and many of its areas were in disuse.

“The conditions of the site had fallen into a state of disrepair. There is a project in the making to recover the purpose of the space and create a modern, high-performance biotherium. Right now, the monkeys and other species are housed at the National Center for the Production of Laboratory Animals (Cenpalab),” explained Antonio Fernández Mastrapa, Director of Production at Cneuro. In the midst of this process, he explained, negotiations were being conducted with international organizations to acquire equipment, which would allow us to manufacture protective wear to confront COVID-19. “It so happened then that these installation of these machines required specific conditions and the premises we had at the center were not suitable for this purpose. So we decided to use the biotherium facility.”

The project, he said, began in October of 2020 and by November the first constructive works were already underway. “Several entities were involved in the final result, from construction and service companies, to Havana’s water system, the Electric Union, Sanitary Services, non-agricultural cooperatives…, in addition to the support provided by the provincial government from the beginning,” he added.

The “made in Cuba” masks are very similar to those marketed internationally and are composed of three layers: one blue, which is the outer layer, a white intermediate layer, and a filter that performs the main role in protecting against the virus.

The system for their manufacture includes three pieces of equipment, Fernández told Granma. The first shapes the mask, and is capable of producing between 100 and 150 units per minute at full capacity. The second machine on the assembly line, which attaches elastic straps to the mask to hold it in place, can only handle up to 40 per minute, thus lowering productive capacity, he said.

“Taking this inconvenience into account, we were obliged to readjust production, to allow for uniformity and ensure that bottlenecks are not created.” He nonetheless emphasized that the goal is to meet the demand for this product, reporting that work is underway to obtain the necessary financing to purchase another machine to attach the straps to the mask, in order to double production, he explained.

“The third machine is the packager, and we have programmed it with a format of five units per package. These machines were started up just a few weeks ago, and we are currently in the load testing phase, but later this month, they will move into full operation,” he stated.

Their acquisition, he commented, was made possible through a project to support measures to prevent and combat covid-19 in Cuba, co-financed by the European Union, which, in addition to the masks, also contributed to increasing our mold manufacturing workshop’s capacity, and in the coming months will allow for the assembly of a plastic injection machine for the manufacture of protective goggles.

Regarding the assurance of raw materials, Fernández explained that materials were initially acquired along with the machinery, which will guarantee the production of an adequate number of masks to evaluate the performance of both the equipment and the materials.

“Of course, we are not going to wait for the raw material to run out before making the necessary arrangements. We are already working to acquire the materials: the cloth, the filter, the wire that acts as a nose bridge, the elastic that holds the mask, etc.”

Cuban swabs: Another milestone

Before COVID-19, Cneuro’s workshop did not manufacture swabs, but rather manufacture of auditory equipment and hearing aids, reported Yamil Rosales Hernández, head of the company’s Medical Supplies Plant.

Nonetheless, given the increase in COVID-19 cases and the need to guarantee PCR testing, we have taken on other responsibilities, he said.

He specified that in September of 2020 they initially produced some 10,000 swabs a day, a task completed “almost entirely manually, using some motors and the continuous efforts of our personnel day and night.”

The United Nations Development Program made possible the acquisition of machinery to manufacture swabs, along two lines: for PCR testing and general use, he added.

The PCR swab is fabricated with polyester thread and a polyethylene stick, and both materials are supplied by national industry, with quality that has been certified, he noted. “It also has medical-grade paper, which ensures the protection and transportation of the sterilized material. Each package contains two swabs.”

Unlike the masks, he said, raw material for the swabs is domestically produced, which is an advantage when it comes to sustaining production.

According to Rosales, the plant is capable of delivering up to 120,000 packages of swabs a day, but since an automatic packaging machine has not been obtained, the process must be done manually, slowing daily production to around 20,000 in this format.

With the acquisition of this equipment, he said, it will be possible to eliminate the importation of swabs for PCR testing, with the consequent savings for the country’s economy.

Both in the swab plant and the mask facility, most of the staff is young. Almost all are Cneuro workers and have experience in the manufacture of protective wear and equipment, since many were trained and participated in the “almost entirely manual” production of swabs.

Administrators at the center report that both masks and swabs are subjected to a rigorous sterilization and quality-control process, and have not disappointed the final recipients.

(Taken from Granma)

Diana Rosa Laffita Vega, Gedeme business director, explained to Granma that the project was commissioned by Cuba´s telecommunications enterprise Etecsa, to produce antenna-bearing structures for communications services, which have previously been imported.

“A guyed tower or mast, as others know it, is a lightweight structure that is easy to install and offers very good weight-bearing characteristics at great heights.”

In the case of the order placed by Etecsa, the director specified that in includes 30 towers 21 meters high and 20 of 30 meters; both constructed with steel purlin, plates or tubes, and can withstand winds up to approximately175 Km/h.

Referring to their technical characteristics, she added that these structures are fixed to the ground by means of a concrete casting attached to the base of the tower, with highly resistant, 8.8 class, hot-dip galvanized fasteners, which guarantee the structures’ stability, resistance and operation.

This type of tower is not only used to support mobile phone service, but can also be used as repeaters for television signals, AM and FM radio stations, and higher frequencies (VHF and UHF), which are used for short distance links and also as radars and aids in aviation and maritime navigation, she reported.

According to the specialist, the project constitutes an invaluable step forward in building production capacity, replacing imports, and advancing the computerization of society. It will have significant social impact as part of a continuous process underway to improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.

(Taken from Granma)

Leonardo Martínez López, GAG director of Industries and Marketing, commented on the effort in a meeting with the press revisiting the process that gave life to the 200-some processing facilities for fruit and vegetables, grains, meat and other products, existing today in the country.

Of this total, the 120 mini-plants that handle fruit and vegetables processed 1,387 tons of tomato, during the spring season, and work is advancing with mango, pineapple and guava, which began in May and should be completed in September, he reported.

With a processing capacity of 35,000 tons annually, representing 18% of the agro industrial capacity of the entire GAG system, these mini-industries focus on supplying the local market with jam, juice, coconut, guava and grapefruit sweets, dressings, marinades, spices and condiments, among other products.

Based on the management and integration model developed by the Ceballos Agro industrial Enterprise, which includes the large central plant, 21 mini-industries affiliated with agricultural cooperatives, basic enterprise units (UEB), collaboration projects and other partners, positive results have been achieved as the model is extended to other agro industrial poles, Martínez explained.

Martínez pointed out that Ceballos not only has agricultural strength, but is also a powerful industry, in which 21 million dollars have been injected for development. In addition, most of its affiliated mini-processing plants have been certified for safe food handling and good production practices, while the central facility supports them by providing laboratory, branding and marketing services.

This is how, he reiterated, we have been able to make progress, to the extent possible, supporting other important companies, including the Victoria de Girón, in Jagüey Grande, in the province of Matanzas, which has adopted this production model. The intention has been to link large facilities with smaller ones, although the goal has not been fully achieved, due to both objective and subjective factors, he stated.

The objective is to make better use of available capacity, as well as maintenance services, metrology, laboratories and quality/safety certification, the use of brands, and access to all existing markets inside and outside the country.

Another challenge being addressed, Martínez noted, is the acquisition of technologies that allow for the use of the diverse kinds of packaging available, both Cuban made and imported. In the case of small plants, along with the food processing industry, we have widely introduced, for example, the use of glass bottles, he reported.

Despite the many difficulties that persist and the goals that remain to be met, the executive acknowledged that mini-plants are proving their value in the current context, as a fundamental link providing the agro-industrial balance and flexibility needed by all productive systems; since they are capable of processing small quantities of produce that a large plant cannot efficiently assume, and have the workers needed to make the most of raw material when it is available.

(Taken from Granma)

Among the productions of these projects are approximately 1,000 tons of base for ecological paint, 900,000 liters of Pinturas Corona, 300,000 plugs, 20,000 switches, 280,000 sockets, 170,000 LED-lamp bases and 285,000 plumbing fixtures.

These projects have shown how productive chains, partnerships among socialist state enterprises, import substitution and links with academia can be attained, efforts proposed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel to boost the national economy.

One of these endeavors involved the paint manufacturer Pinturas Corona, which in 2020 supplied over 1,300,000 liters to the program for the local production and sale of construction materials through its partnership with the Local Industry Enterprise Group, to distribute and produce their product.

Partnerships between enterprises, whether suppliers of raw materials or developers of products, with the application of science and practical knowledge, have achieved the creation of new high-impact products for use in decisive lines of work within the Housing Program.

Manuel Vázquez Enríquez, head of Micon’s program for the local production of construction materials, explained to Granma that the productive chain and cooperative efforts with Pinturas Corona, Azcuba, the González Lines Enterprise and the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICIMAR) made possible, among other accomplishments, the reactivation, with Cuban raw materials, of a paint factory in Holguín, associated with the Azcuba Central Enterprise Management Group. This facility was inoperative due to the unavailability of imported materials.

The partnership of Pinturas Corona with ICIMAR, affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, sought to develop, with the use of science, bacteria that produce cellulose as paint thickener, a process that can be applied later by other enterprises.
Pinturas Corona has partnered with the Institute of Marine Sciences to develop bacteria that produce cellulose as paint thickener. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

Currently, a paint factory is under construction in the Havana municipality of Marianao, by a brigade from the Demolition and Construction Enterprise, affiliated with the Gelma group, under the franchise of Pinturas Corona, which will contribute with technology and knowledge in the production of polymers and the manufacturing of different types of paints, including anticorrosive, enamel, waterproof, and high-quality hygienic, among others; also adhering to their systems of quality assurance and environment protection, in order to meet the high demand of the Ministry of Agriculture, with no expenses in hard currency required.

By means of the science applied by Pinturas Corona and Azcuba, in collaboration with the Sugar Cane Research Institute, they plan to produce an anticorrosive with domestic raw materials, for repair works in sugar mills, and to develop resins and binders to improve paint quality.

Vázquez Enríquez states that, in order to meet the growing demand for paints and ecological bases, as promoted by the leadership of the country to replace imports, it is essential that enterprises and suppliers of domestic raw materials facilitate the acquisition of these products by the manufacturers responsible for this task.

Quality and environmental protection

Antonio Corona Montero, self-employed owner of the brand and creator of Pinturas Corona, explained that this product is made from overstocked items acquired from different enterprises and state organizations, making a range of paints of different types that are an environmentally friendly, climate-resistant product, for both indoor and outdoor surfaces.

According to the head of the Micon program for the local production of construction materials, these projects receive special attention from the Center for Construction Research and Development, to certify their quality.

Likewise, a partnership was created with Union Suchel laboratories, for the certification of creoline, one of the products manufactured during the new coronavirus pandemic and supplied to the People’s Power government of the Habana del Este municipality for the disinfection of isolation centers.

PhD Luis Rafael Díaz Cisneros, coordinator of Technical Assistance at Pinturas Corona, explained that quality control of the product is assured, following established standards of density, viscosity, coverage and dry residue, which they also compare to the parameters of other internationally certified brands.

Furthermore, among the ongoing projects for environment protection is a treatment plant to recycle water, a process through which the Pinturas Corona factory recovers 5,000 liters of water in a recirculation system, and an external drainage system which ensures that water released into the Cojímar River is waste-free.

Díaz Cisneros added that they have conducted geological studies to detect organisms, which have indicated that the factory’s water treatment system is safe.

Exporting quality products

According to the country’s economic and social strategy to boost the national economy, non-state forms of management can export through specialized state enterprises.
One of the goals of Pinturas Corona is to export its products to international markets through the Ministry of the Construction, once they have filled social orders and met projections for retail sales.

In this way, Corona Montero states, they will be contributing to the national economy with hard currency and with other equipment they can acquire, necessary to continued improvement of their product’s quality and to substitute imports, thus responding to calls made by the country’s leadership, and contributing to Cuba’s plan for economic and social development.

(Taken from Granma)

And so this efficient socialist company was launched in its category as the first exporting pole of Guantánamo – approved in January of this year – which authorizes it to trade with the world directly, a crucial step to assume its promising position within the strategic program of local development, which will boost capacities to increase export lines and poles.

The prestigious industry recognized by its trade name AltoSerra and founded in 1987, in the first half of 2020 concentrated its efforts on certification processes, training and functional adjustments to undertake, independently, export responsibility, complementing the mission of Cubaexport, until now by in front of all your commercial activity.

Likewise, this year about to conclude, the entity laid the foundations for recently also completing, to Europe, its first direct shipment of batches of cocoa beans, another of the lines of the province best located in the international market, and in which The Asdrúbal López Coffee Processor is now entering, in its desire to diversify and conquer new clients for the future.

The details were provided to the Cuban News Agency Osmel de la Cruz, general director of this Guantanamo company, who stressed that, in order to position itself as an export industry in the eastern region, during this time work has been done on the readjustment of procedures and creation of a foreign trade department, with an office and representation in Havana.

AltoSerra, Vanguardia Nacional for almost three decades and one of the most efficient in the business system of the Ministry of Agriculture, closes another year of good results, fulfilling both its commitment to foreign sales and the internal sale of exportable coffee. and that destined for consumption, in the latter case exceeding the levels of the last 11 years.

His tribute currently represents between 50 and 60 percent of the national coffee that is exported today, and in this area he aspires to conquer new markets, beyond his usual clients in Europe, Asia and Oceania, who already attest to excellence. of coffee born in the heart of the mountains of the extreme eastern part of Cuba.

The efficient preparation of washed Arabica coffee that it processes (rest of the grain and the formation of batches of the same region and quality), led to levels of use above 80 percent, which contributed greater added value to the product, said the maximum representative of this entity with headquarters in the extreme south of the city of Guantánamo.

This industry employs more than 400 workers in seven units distributed in four Guantanamo municipalities -he explained-, and among its suppliers are all the coffee companies in the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín, with plantations about 500 and 700 meters above the level. from the sea, altitudes with favorable climates and soils for this crop.

Today the certification procedures, of the denomination of origin of its high quality product, recognize not only its coffee growing niches in the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa Massif (with more than 200 years of tradition in the cultivation and benefit of the drupa), rather, they include other endorsements of award-winning requirements in the international market, such as harvesting in harmony with the environment.

For a second stage within its development strategy as an export pole, the technological improvements will remain, and take until the roasting -with roasting, grinding and packaging- the processing of its star item, until now commercialized in grain, which will convert the company in exporter not only of raw materials, but also of finished products.

(Source: ACN)

According to the technical description, the essential component of the equipment conceived by engineer Arnoldo Alfredo Martínez Acosta is an electronic device controlled by a computer, which together allow pitchers to train without a catcher, and provide a differentiated characterization of each athlete.

Other advantages of the equipment are ease of programming; use of fewer balls during practice; detailed analysis of each pitch; and testing possibilities to determine if a pitcher is ready to play when scheduled.

The machine controls the catcher’s position within the virtual impact zone, which is digitally recorded along with the speed of the pitch, thus facilitating statistical studies.

This new equipment, in which electronics, mechanics, and computer programming are all involved, features a cushion that absorbs the kinetic energy of balls pitched, which are automatically returned to the pitcher by a transport mechanism.

(Granma)