«Chichí» factory Resumes Cookie Production

After a nine-month interruption, the Especialidades Yumurí cookie factory («Chichí») is resuming production of its star line, thanks to the installation of a photovoltaic solar system with sufficient capacity to power its old machines.

«We have a battery bank of 260 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of storage and solar panels of 630 kWh each, for a generation power of 161,280 kW, which facilitates manufacturing during daytime hours,» explained Julio Enrique González Guedes, investment specialist at the Food Basic Business Unit (UEB) in the municipality of Matanzas.

The Enerza Villa Clara Local Development Project installed the technology under a turnkey contract; they provided the resources and carried out the work, to thus transition to the energy matrix change — an alternative in the face of the drastic reduction of diesel, expressed Enrique González.

«Here 18,000 liters of oil were used monthly. Not only do we now have energy independence, but we also produce the product that defines the identity of this factory, and we were able to guarantee permanent employment for 45 people,» says the visibly satisfied administrator Yosvany Rivero González.

Rivero González assured that for now he has raw materials to guarantee two tons of daily production destined for the population, social consumption, people in vulnerable situations, and the Population Care Systems (SAF).

Workers such as the kneader Gilberto Silveira Ramírez expressed their happiness at returning to produce this line. «We are very happy. We did not think this would be possible. We really saw returning to producing cookies as something distant.»

According to Julio Rivera Betancourt, auditing and control specialist of the Provincial Food Company, flour, oil, yeast, sugar, and salt are guaranteed for this year — «raw material that is no longer subsidized but rather by supply and demand, and it must be bought at whatever the market price is,» he specified.

Along with this acquisition of the solar kit, the «Chichí» now has two new electric ovens that, among other advantages, allow cooking in eight minutes, which greatly humanizes the work, the opportunity for stable cooking, and being able to see the cooking time and temperature from the equipment’s electronic screen.

The investment responds to the country’s economic and social transformations at the Provincial Food Company, an entity that has already raised its workers’ wages from an average of 3,200 pesos to 12,000 — «still insufficient, but we are taking steps according to economic results,» stated its director Iván Castro Rodríguez.

Despite the country’s complex situation and the energy siege imposed by the United States government, which prevents oil from entering, the «Chichí» turned to alternatives that kept it alive and producing for the people.

That is how it ventured into the manufacture of pizza dough, tomato puree, Yumurino sauce, vinegar, wine, papaya sweets, and croquettes, which demonstrates its adaptation to the new times and its capacity for resilience.

Photo by the author.