Havana, Friday May 1, 2009. Year 13 / Number
121
Rescuing our wholesale food warehouses
Dress me in a hurry, for I’m going slowly
By: Lázaro de Jesús / Photos: Yander Zamora
Few Cubans among the thousands who shop for their share of ‘rationed
items’ in groceries across the island every month ever wonder where the
items come from, how ‘old’ they are, or how many people might have
handled them until then.
The
rate of damaged goods has dropped notably: from 3,354 tons per quarter
in 2005 to 247 between January and March this year
In order to meet deadlines and quality requirements, however, many links
must be coupled with clockwork precision along the chain of distribution
of items bound for the family shopping basket and other food supplies
for social institutions, domestic trade units and restaurants
nationwide.
Our wholesale food warehouses are barely a cog in this unifying machine,
but as the main keepers of what we save for a ‘rainy day’ they are
perhaps the most directly involved in, if not the most important element
to, the procurement of food for millions of people in a process where
every step is vital.
QUITE A GREAT RISK
Established in 2007 under the Ministry of Domestic Trade to solve
the great many problems facing food production in Cuba, UNAL [group of
national wholesale enterprises dealing with foodstuffs and other
consumer goods] rules over the entire organizational and operational
dynamics of these warehouses, subject to the authority of the provincial
People’s Power bodies.
Putting
people in charge of the storage has helped eliminate the so-called
‘ponds’ [empty spaces otherwise taken by stolen goods but concealed by
the outlying layers of sacks or boxes].
Today, UNAL counts on 445 warehouses (145 more than in 2005), enough to
store 730,000 certified tons, an amount far above the figures planned
three years ago, made possible by the assignment of new facilities and
the recovery of others long affected by time and neglect, a plan which
has borne fruit but is yet to work as it should.
Given the U.S. blockade’s restrictions on Cuba’s imports, the imbalance
of the current international crisis and the intensification of
meteorological phenomena, the island has been forced to plan its food
purchases well in advance to foresee any contingency and deal with
extended periods of rising prices, which includes efforts to have more
storing capacity and, therefore, big warehouses.
Deterioration went unopposed for a long time throughout the whole
infrastructure mainly because of the negative effects of the special
period, although the workers themselves talk about the listless and
neglectful attitude of both some managers and the overall staff.
A comprehensive audit made in the second half of 2005 revealed serious
and costly organizational flaws in this sector. For example, estimates
had it that about 14,000 tons of goods got spoiled, a rough calculation
if we take into account that the current Inventory Control and
Registration System used to keep tabs on things was not in use at the
time, nor were the processes automated as they are today.
Consequently, 2006 saw the kickoff of a widespread investment plan that
helped recover 79 warehouses with a total storing capacity of 113,000
tons. In 2007 a smaller number was saved –55 out of the expected105–
albeit with a storing space amounting to 165,700 tons, an encouraging
rate of growth, if still insufficient to meet our needs and production
targets.
Last year, however, only 19 out of 59 facilities were restored (enough
to fit in 72,205 tons, less than in previous years) and works to make
another 40 ready were put off for this year after the money went to
helping the hurricane victims, even if nature was not the sole reason
that the schedule went once again unfulfilled.
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF AN URGENT
PROGRAM
The extensive damage caused by the hurricanes overburdened the
investment process overnight and certainly pushed the program far behind
schedule. Nature spared no province: the worst hit lost 86 warehouses (a
storing capacity of about 178,345 tons). In the end, over 1,760 tons of
food items were unfit for consumption, mainly rice and beans. Still,
less than 2,900 tons were lost to deterioration.
By December, thanks to the state’s immediate involvement, the joint
action of our Ministries and a commendable effort by the workers in the
affected areas, 97% of the damaged roofs had been repaired and 75
warehouses were back in shape, for a totally recovered capacity of
175,800 tons (98.6%), a praiseworthy result that said more than any
words could.
Nonetheless, the Ministry’s yearly report admits that these results are
nowhere near the proposed goals and quotes managers at UNAL as saying
that "the Warehouse Recovery Project has come up against many
difficulties in almost every province, especially in Matanzas, Santiago
de Cuba and Ciudad de La Habana", to wit: delays in granting funds to
the expense account, understaffing, shortage of dry goods and
organizational problems, not to mention the lack of equipment and tools.
No less alarming is the failure to comply with the investment
agreements, a sign of the pressing need to optimize coordination among
the relevant enterprises, mainly when half of the 40 unfinished
warehouses in the 2008 plan respond to other entities, including 13 of
them that belong to the Ministry of Construction (MICONS).
Despite UNAL’s problems to staff its own brigades, the figures are quite
revealing: it notched up by itself 17 of the 19 warehouses repaired last
year (MICONS took care of the other two). However, the first quarter of
2009 brought little joy, as none of the 40 warehouses still pending from
last year has been finished at this stage of the plan to rescue 50 of
them, an ambitious objective for just an eight-month period even after
redesigning strategies, ironing out differences and extending the
working hours, as demanded by the delays. December will have the final
say on how much of a budget of 6.1 million pesos will truly be put into
practice.
MORE THAN JUST CEMENT AND
SAND
The Warehouse Recovery Program aims beyond the preservation of our
storing capacity, as it includes plans to repair –and very often
rebuild– nearby facilities like offices, mess halls and bathrooms to
provide the proper working conditions. And since making work more human
is central to the program, new technologies and means of production have
been imported, which will help make the most of existing capacity.
Technology worth over 2 million convertible pesos (CUC) and 9 million
pesos was imported in 2008, including more than 4,000 pieces of
equipment from Venezuela and China, such as conveyor belts, digital
weighing machines, freight elevators, extractor fans, scales and
wheelbarrows to handle cargo –some warehouses didn’t have any, while
others were crying out for new ones– and investments were made to supply
the workers with protective gear like safety belts, wristbands, etc.
Similar investments will be made this year to get these means, although
the faults of the maintenance strategy are cause for concern. Figures
have it that of all the new equipment 29% of the wheelbarrows, 20% of
the wooden bases and 5% of the extractor fans are broken.
“A shortage of mechanics, combined with lack of discipline, have kept us
from paying due attention to maintenance. Now we are improving the
system and doing more in the way of preventive maintenance to avoid
time-outs for breakdowns,” said Israel Ruiz Lima, UNAL director for the
last two months.
Nor the goal of keeping the top technological level in all our
warehouses has been honored. According to UNAL’s technical director
Jesús Almeneiro Rebolledo, only 155 facilities (34%) had been rated at
the end of 2008 and very few others have been added to the list so far
this year, a sign that the process will go at a slower pace than we
expected. Nevertheless, he believes the process is not at a standstill,
since a logistic team is studying the existing conditions and the
requirements we must meet to reach the desired technological status.
Reality shows once again that the thought is not all that counts when it
comes to materialize projects of change. Rather than a large storage
capacity, a great deal of collective will and, above all else, stricter
requirements –both to right subjective wrongs and to minimize objective
shortcomings– are imperative before the Warehouse Recovery Program can
be straightened out, an endeavor that has long been sending out a clear
message: "dress me in a hurry, for I’m going slowly".
---ooOoo---
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/05/01/nacional/artic01.html
|
| [http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2009/05/01/base.htm] |