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• 02 / 14 / 2010

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After 2003, the economic security of Havana’s Empresa de Cítricos Ceiba (Ceiba Citrus Fruit Company) was about to go under.

The production of previous years, found in the capital’s markets and which amounted 100,000 tons a year, began to spiral down.

There was a threatening danger: an attack by the Huanglongbing (known as the Yellow Dragon), a disease currently present in over 40 countries and considered the most devastating in the world of citrus fruit.

This bacterium, native of the Asian continent, stays in the plant’s internal vessels and attacks until it decimates them.

Symptoms appear after the incubation period, which ranges between six months and one year. In order to eradicate it, Cuban researchers apply measures like the immediate eradication of attacked plants and the use of systemic and contact insecticides.

NOT STANDING WITH THEIR ARMS CROSSED

In view of such a dilemma, the workers of the Empresa de Cítricos Ceiba looked for formulas to face up to, economically speaking, the drastic drop of its basic production, which decreased from 96,000 tons marketed in 2003 to 21,500 in 2009.

Diversification was imminent, explained Engineer Oscar Cruz, director of that entity, to this newspaper. The accelerated increase of fruit trees resulted in salvation for the four Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPCs) among which the enterprise distributes its land.

We also realized that there were technical and organizational conditions to achieve the two objectives: being more viable economically, and offering more fresh fruit to the population and industrial plants to make juice and canned fruit. After the creation of the first plantations in 2005 –each with a yoke of oxen -, the citrus growers (both men and women) accepted the challenge.

The fast response of the workers in the face of these contingencies, together with their experience and discipline, made the profitability and efficiency of the enterprise possible, which ended 2009 with 468,000 pesos in profit, to stay afloat. The program became a matter of honor for the 35 plantations incorporated in this movement, one which their workers and executives say they will never leave.

However, needs and aspirations are not enough to achieve good production results, so it was indispensable to take into account decisive factors like organization and technological discipline, and to alternate, by way of rotating the sowing, permanent crops or "late production" crops, like avocado and mango, with others bearing fruit in one year or even earlier.

The latter, of shorter cycles, support the development of the former. At the same time, a group of no less than 15 varieties of minor crops makes the diversification more effective.

This scheme is the result of a comprehensive study, so its characteristics are high yield, quality and the constant presence of different products in the markets.

INCREASING DELIVERIES

In spite of the adverse weather conditions of 2008, sales in 2009 totalled 1,875 tons and this year should amount to close to 3,000. Volumes for the various destinations will gradually increase as new areas join production and the potential of current
ones is exploited better.

Like for citrus production, Ceiba’s cooperative members have made a commitment: to become a bastion of fruit trees. Results –without abandoning citrus growing- they should close 2010 with over 600 hectares planted and to complete, as soon as
possible, the additional 1,000 they have set out to cultivate.

The Vicente Pérez and the members of the 30 de Noviembre UBPC are champions of this endeavor. Their main weapon, he stated, is never to have empty spaces "because it would be like a ship without freight".

The policy encouraging workers and their relatives is wide-ranging. Interested parties consider that these plantations –each one averaging 10 workers- without being yet in optimum condition, combine, in a clever way, material, moral and social recognition.

Osmany Borges, from the 26-hectare El Pedregal Farm, says that it’s not a matter of increasing individual revenues, it’s also necessary for each grower to know the difference and what his or her work represents. This information is not always complete or detailed everywhere.

Workers interviewed by this newspaper were of the opinion that no decree or slogan makes the "sense of belonging" effective.

The first thing needed is a demanding, respected and capable leader who shares "good times and bad times" with their fellow workers, who in turn can see in him or her another member of the group, a person that participates in internal decisions, and who keeps up to date on production and financial situations.

Only in this way will he or she be able to know positive and negative aspects and the influence each factor may have on the results obtained by the UBPC.

Many agree that the previous lack of control of working days originated a bureaucracy that, fortunately, has nothing to do with today’s prevailing self-discipline.

Now they all begin, in all fairness, to express themselves as owners, and they take
care of, ensure and protect the interests benefiting them. The duration of working days depends on the needs of the moment and no-one goes to bed without knowing the task they’ll have the following day.

The president of the UBPC agrees with these criteria and adds: some received at the end of the year –that is, for 12 months of work- close to 10,000 pesos, and others over 20,000, depending on their individual contributions.

Pérez recognizes the decision of workers of assuming the safekeeping and preservation of fruit trees in harvest and also of those about to be harvested.

Even though citrus fruit production can be recovered so it returns to the leadership that belongs to it, adds Osmany, "fruit trees have arrived at a good time and this is the right moment. What seemed to be a blind alley, given the crisis caused by the disease, became an ideal alternative to increase our production and, with it, diversify offers for the population."

Source: Granma Daily