Until now, the number of liters of milk contracted from Ciego de Avila producers by the Dairy Products Company of Ciego de Ávila is 12.3 million, while the province's potential amounts to four million more. This difference between real and plan is what keeps a decisive sector in tension in the face of feeding the people.

The production director of the aforementioned company, Rubén Pina, affirms that the objective of the entity is not to stop hiring until that goal is reached, even though the economic technical plan is 15.7 million, a figure that must be obtained before the end of January.

In this month ―he adds―, the most critical, especially due to the weather conditions and the low reproduction rate of the cows, some 25,000 liters of milk must be collected daily, approximately 2,000 less, compared to the same date of last year.

The December paddocks have already recorded the problem, even though the exact havoc of the drought cannot be measured in liters (L), because every time the Dairy and Livestock managers speak, they agree on the same point: no delivery to the industry all the milk that comes out of the udders.

Faced with this scenario, Lázara Mercedes López Acea, first deputy minister of the Ministry of Food Industry, on a working visit to the province, called not to fail to comply under any precept with the delivery of milk to the most sensitive population groups, seven-year-old children and pregnant.

Her words point directly to a problem detected in the territory: around 400 farmers do not honor their agreements with the dairy company and increase the deficit generated by not hiring as much as possible. This forces us to speak in terms of priority between priorities, knowing, for example, that the demand for medical diets is not covered.

Even, faced with the seriousness of the matter, López Acea pointed out that the delivery of milk to the new economic actors should be reduced to a minimum, while at the same time he valued as "dishonest" the possibility of buying dairy products to the detriment of the lack an infant's glass of milk.

When the talanqueras for milk and beef were removed at the end of April, May had more expectations than downpours. The immediate nature of the measures that made marketing more flexible and, incidentally, raised the price of milk made spring a deluge of opinions, hopes, uncertainties, doubts...

Therefore, the first deputy minister urged to increase the dialogue with the producers in pursuit of the total commitment to cover the demand of the basic basket and hospitals, and to control regarding livestock activities.

She insisted on increasing the number of contracts as much as possible, not discarding even a liter with the purpose of satisfying in the future the needs that directly affect the population today.

As part of her work visit, López Acea exchanged with the management and workers of the largest livestock company in Ciego de Avila, Ruta Invasora, interested in fulfilling her plans.