Raw-material and energy shortages restrict operations at Lácteos Santiago

Lácteos Santiago is operating far below the level planned for its facilities, according to director Eduardo Griñán. The company faces shortages of raw materials, electricity and fuel. Difficulties are not concentrated in one stage: they range from milk collection to refrigeration and transport of finished products. The situation reduces the operating room of an industry producing dairy foods.

Discussing inputs, Griñán said about 90 percent of the raw materials used by the industry in eastern Cuba were imported. Powdered milk was among the principal products from abroad. At Lácteos Santiago, shortages of raw materials are one obstacle to operations. These conditions connect regional dependence on imported inputs with the supply limitations facing the company.

Electricity and fuel availability also affect basic tasks in the chain. Griñán explained that without them, the company cannot collect milk, maintain the refrigeration required to preserve it or transport finished products. Those operations link receipt of raw material with processing and delivery, so energy limitations cross different phases of industrial work.

The company supplies hospitals and schools in the province and serves children and older adults. Restrictions therefore affect a company providing products to those groups and institutions. The connection between operational difficulties and supply destinations places the problem beyond the industrial facilities: it involves the food produced and the tasks needed to preserve and transport it.

Griñán's description combines limitations in obtaining raw materials with obstacles to maintaining production and distribution. Milk must be collected and kept cold, while finished foods require transport. Lack of electricity and fuel affects those tasks, and scarce inputs restrict manufacturing. The cited problems therefore affect both incoming materials and handling of products leaving the company.