Fuel shortages have not prevented the Las Tunas-based export-import company Agroint from continuing its battle to generate foreign currency for the country through its leading products: charcoal and Havana chili pepper.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- With only five percent of the fuel allocated for the January-April period, the company grew by five percent compared to the same period in 2024, although it was unable to meet its planned target.
Alberto González Hernández, director-general of Agroint, regrets not having had the necessary assurances to achieve higher volumes. However, he remains hopeful that the situation will improve in the remainder of the year.
“We are dissatisfied because we have enough products,” the executive said exclusively to the Cuban News Agency, after giving examples of the leaps made in recent years, especially in 2024, when, with fuel guaranteed, exports were four times higher than in 2023.
Regarding charcoal, he said, it is exported to different regions, but the blockade prevents it from going to the United States, a country where the product is sold at higher prices, in addition to being closer to Cuba's ports.
The entity now moves its exports from different ports, depending on the situation in each location. Currently, 65 percent of shipments to other countries are made from Moa, Holguín; 26 percent from Mariel; and 9 percent from Santiago de Cuba.
Faced with these objective problems, Agroint is not sitting idly by, as it maintains contact with suppliers of charcoal and habanero chili peppers and plans to expand the assortment of products that are of interest to several countries, such as Algeria, which is in demand for marabou wood.
On the agenda is the possibility to exporting exporting fruit, especially frozen mango pieces, for which it has identified more than eight hectares, as well as worm humus and Ecomic biofertilizers, which are processed at the plant located in the Calixto Sarduy agricultural production cooperative in the municipality of Las Tunas.
González Hernández says they plan to take advantage of the Puerto Padre salt mine, the second-largest in Cuba after Guantánamo, to market their products abroad.
