Rooted in loyalist sap, like almost everything good between the Cuban sky and the earth, the use of bioproducts in agriculture dates back to the 1990s, when four production factories, located in the hands of the commander, saw the light in the municipalities of Güira de Melena. Güines, Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus.
The story, told in a close synthesis, is known by the memory of engineer Teobaldo Cruz Méndez, chief investment specialist of the Superior Organization of Business Management (OSDE) Labiofam, which deals with the development of a project that follows in the footsteps of the first factories and will increases the country’s capacity to manufacture bioproducts up to eight times, approximately.
It is an investment program that includes three industrial complexes, located in Havana, Villa Clara and Granma, whose production should cover almost all domestic demand for biofertilizers, biostimulants and biopesticides, to ensure greater phytosanitary protection of crops.
HISTORY OF A DELAYED PLANT
The history of the Havana bioproduct plant, which is still under construction, is more years old than it should be, crossed by financial constraints and other problems, unfortunately converted into commonplaces for a good part of the process. investments: delays, irregularities in planning, employment …
Without judgments, it is worth summarizing a few lines the evolution of the work, to 88.1% of the industrial complex and 99% of the completion of the civil structure.
According to Teobaldo Cruz to Granma, the Havana factory was born in the first decade of the 2000s, ie in that period conceptual and basic engineering was done, in order to manufacture products for the control of bacteria: Bactivec and Griselesf.
However, a few years later, it is determined that this plant could take over the manufacture of bioproducts, in addition to the production of biological control and Biorat, a rodenticide for the elimination of rodents and pests.
This projection, which is very beneficial from an economic point of view, although perhaps delayed, has been taking into account since 2012, a stage in which financial constraints began to affect this project more strongly.
According to Cruz Méndez, the factory went through various financiers, until in 2015 the investment was resumed. Since then and until now, there have been financial, maximum, minimum and very low.
However, beyond the tensions, the Havana plant lacks some subsystems and three fundamental systems for its completion: the general electricity distribution facility, the waste treatment facility and the fire-fighting systems.
In the case of Vila Clara, the fermentation elements are at 65%, while Granma’s work is a little behind.
In order to solve the pending systems, Labiofam executive commented, contracts were established with several Cuban companies, which represents considerable savings.
“The total cost of the three factories is $ 50 million, and the connection to the domestic industry has saved between $ 6 million and $ 7 million,” he said.
Two examples are enough to illustrate the savings. The rice scale, which cost $ 80,000 when it was manufactured in Cuba, costs $ 26,000. In addition, it saves 60% of materials originally designed for civil engineering.
The rice washing system, on the other hand, was worth $ 886,000, meanwhile, the manufacturing price by Cuban companies is equivalent to about half of that amount.
If all these alternatives materialize, stressed the main specialist in Labiofam Investments, the Havana factory will be ready, with a minimum of conditions, for the last quarter of 2021 and Villa Clara, in the third quarter of 2022.
INCREASE AGRICULTURAL YIELD WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES
More than a factory, the Havana plant is an industrial complex capable of producing, in addition to Bactivec and Griselesf, approximately 12 assortments of biofertilizers and biopesticides, including the introduction of others compatible with submerged fermentation technology.
Cruz Méndez assured that the Havana plant must reach a nominal capacity of 5,800,000 liters of fermented broth, equivalent to 3,800,000 liters of finished products. But production will be in line, among other things, with agricultural demands and vector campaigns.
He added that in the specific case of bioproducts, the program, which not only includes the Havana industrial complex but also the Villa Clara and Granma plants, could cover between one million and 1.5 million hectares.
In addition, there are the four existing installations, today immersed in a rescue process based on two fundamental working premises: nominal capacity and industrial reliability, in order to achieve higher levels of production and efficiency.
Today, according to Cruz Méndez, the production of the four Labiofam factories covers approximately 26% of the total order of bioproducts.
With the start of the new facilities, in addition to the increase in the production of biofertilizers and biopesticides, it is expected to produce approximately 1,080 tons of Biorat per year, which will meet external demand and export to countries in the area.
Similarly, the production of Biobras 16 is planned, a biostimulant for crops, which only in rice can increase its yield by up to 25%. In both the industrial complex in Havana and the one in Villa Clara, the figures must reach 220,000 liters per year.
The availability of these plants, in the words of Teobaldo Cruz Méndez, will, first of all, free the country from a considerable volume of imports and project a gradual presence on the international market. In addition, it will guarantee the preparation of technological packages, depending on the crops and sowing periods, and, above all, will direct the country towards agriculture with a high ecological level.