14ymedio, Madrid, April 15, 2024 — The Las Tunas Puerto Padre saltworks employees are forced to walk 1.6 miles from the center of the mounds “where the sun burns mercilessly” to the factory several times a day due to the company’s lack of transport, said Periódico 26, the provincial newspaper, on Monday.
It is not the worst data for the “lost salt.” The salt pan produces so much that it could expand its goods beyond Las Tunas, Holguín and Villa Clara. If it does not do so, they say, it is “due to the lack of cargo transport to move the productions to their destinations,” a problem that has left the tables of the population understocked.
The saltworks of Puerto Padre is the second in the country in production, behind that of Caimanera, in Guantánamo. Annually, according to official accounts, it extracts about 80,000 tons, which converts into approximately 40,000 tons of salt, although the data are not entirely clear. The information published on Monday states that in 2023, the company produced more than 25,000 tons of salt, compared to the 40,000 that were announced in November of that year.
Annually, according to official accounts, it extracts about 80,000 tons of salt that converts into approximately 40,000 tons
For 2024, the plan is “similar”: to extract 32,000 tons of raw material to produce 16,500 of coarse salt that is destined for the Electrochemical Industry of Sagua la Grande, in Villa Clara, for animal feed, while 8,500 tons go to the basic basket and social consumption.
“Even in the midst of material and structural difficulties, workers hope to re-export the salt as they did years ago, given the quality of their product,” said Yenisleydys Do
