The Las Tunas Salt Industry basic business unit (UEB in Spanish), based in Puerto Padre, is a large open-air industry, where the sun burns mercilessly. The strong winds constantly move the camera, determined to focus on the salt hills and brine ponds, which make up a captivating landscape, while the clothes threaten to come off the body.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The view is lost from the center of the salt works to the administrative offices. It is two and a half kilometers and not a few workers have to walk that distance several times a day, due to the lack of transport to move around the open-air factory.

Although the infrastructure suffers from the effects of the saltpeter and the weather, the 220 men and more than 30 women who make up the workers' collective, with their sense of belonging, always have the goal of producing more and more, because they are aware of their commitment to the electrochemical industry and fine salt for social consumption and the basic food basket of the provinces of Holguín, Villa Clara and Las Tunas.

In 2023 the company produced more than 25,000 tons of salt. This year the plan is similar, starting with 32,000 tons of extraction of raw material to produce 16,500 tons of coarse salt for its main client, the electrochemical industry of Sagua la Grande, in Villa Clara, and animal feed, and 8,500 tons for the basic food basket and social consumption.

Even with the material and structural difficulties, the workers still aspire to export salt again, as they did years ago, given the quality of their product, according to Yenisleydys Domínguez Sánchez, the technical manager.

"We participated in the Third Industry and Trade Fair of 2023, where we had the opportunity to talk with the representative of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), to whom we explained the possibility we had of exporting salt, and he told us about the interest of a client for the electrochemical industry, on which we have a lot of experience with quality production. This is a possibility that we can realize."

The Puerto Padre salt industry does not expand its fine salt market beyond Las Tunas, Holguín, and Villa Clara because of the lack of cargo transport to move the products to their destinations, and these problems have even had an impact on the shortfall in deliveries to consumers on many occasions. Nevertheless, the collective maintains its production, and the salt piles continue to grow.