During the visit to the Jesus Menendez Agricultural Production Cooperative, which belongs to the Enrique Varona Agroindustrial Sugar Company, the president inquired about the situation of the Livestock Module and then talked to the workers and staff of the Raul Cervantes rice mill-dryer.

At the latter center, Juan Carlos Balmaceda, director of the agro-industrial grain company Maximo Gomez, explained that they are capable of receiving 29,700 tons of the cereal annually, although today they only process 5,800 tons due to insufficient deliveries from producers.

Diaz Canel asked about the prospects for increasing the land fund, knowing that there are sugar cane-growing areas being demolished in an environment where there is an abundance of water.

In that regard, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in Ciego de Avila, Julio Heriberto Gomez, pledged that with a greater supply of fuel and financing, the province has the conditions to surge the harvest and partly cover the demand for standardized rice for the population. In a meeting with the party leaders of the municipality of Chambas, the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the PCC, Roberto Morales, insisted on the importance of the effective link between the leaders of the political body and the grassroots organizations and urged the relevance of having accurate diagnoses and having well identified the distortions that today hinder the necessary development of the country.

During his speech, Diaz Canel was concerned about what is being done to reduce food prices, and said that small and medium-sized enterprises should really be a complement to the provincial economy.

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