CAMAGÜEY- The Ruta Invasora Grain Agroindustrial Company, With presence in seven municipalities, and whose fundamental task is the production of rice, it diversifies its productions and contributions in pursuit of achieving food sovereignty in the province.
Composed of 11 Base Business Units (UEB), 4 Basic Cooperative Production Units (UBPC) and Credit and Service Cooperatives (CSS), its 536 workers are organized into 16 labor groups.
By 2024, the area to be planted with rice is 22,000 hectares (ha) for a yield per ton in the specialized sector of 27,000 and 12,000 in the popular sector.
In the case of specialized rice, Michel assured Bayate Camejo, general director, the yield of 2.7 ton/ha is based on studies carried out with the use of technological packages, while that of popular rice, 1 ton/ha is without the use of agents.
Ruta Invasora has 10 dryers, 5 mills, a seed plant and a dry storage capacity of more than 18,000 tons for food processing, and more than 12,000 for consumption.
For this year’s industrial production, they plan to mill 16,721 tons of paddy rice and consume 10,032 tons. All drying will be done with biomass, husk, which will save 500,000 liters of diesel.
TECHNOLOGICAL AND MANUFACTURING IMPROVEMENTS
Within the investment plan, the installation and start-up of 15 pumps of 80 liters per second for rice cultivation stand out, enough to irrigate 600 hectares. The commissioning of two reels, to supply 20 hectares each of various crops, which will be installed in the production centers of Santa Justa and La Vega, as well as the construction of the 500 liters per second water pipeline for crop irrigation. several in the Jimaguayú area.
In addition, they plan to carry out the repair of the La Lima silo, the road from Cuatro Caminos to Sierra Maestra, the construction of the Libertad husk oven, the husk deposit in the Tato Rodríguez mill and a cassava flour factory.
They also have agreements with the University of Camagüey Ignacio Agramonte that allow them to optimize processes and improve factory designs. Together they work to identify and solve the problems that most impact rice production in the agricultural area, with emphasis on aspects such as salinity, soil composition, pest resistance and water availability, among others.
As well as in the development of technologies for the application of nitrogen fertilizers to rice cultivation, in a first stage with ammonia and later with the most viable alternative identified in the context of the territory.
They design the application of precision agriculture, with the use of drones, for the leveling of rice cultivation plots, and a program of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
DIVERSIFICATION FOR SUCCESS
Ruta Invasora also has an animal mass of 14,323 including cattle, horses, sheep, goats, poultry and pigs; and, an area of 1,763 hectares dedicated to the cultivation of food and vegetables, grains and fruit trees.
In the province they supply 3 markets and 20 sales points at the provincial level, with profits of 8.7 million sales; and they serve 13 centers where food is prepared and sold at reasonable prices.
The Company has 3 production centers, with a production capacity of 10 tons of sausages and derivatives, where 15 varieties of products are produced, of which they are self-sufficient, they make sales to their workers and to the markets on a retail basis. In addition, in their 4 bakeries-sweet shops, they make more than 5,000 breads daily. “In this way we achieve that all our UEBs diversify, and seek their income individually,” said Bayate.
In the idle areas of the flat rice terraces, they began planting fingerlings in 2023, in a production cooperated with PescaCam they achieved more than 9 million and this calendar they have their own production plan of 7 million.
In addition, they have a charcoal processing plant, using Italian technology, with a production capacity of 20,000 tons of exportable charcoal per year, and at this moment they have 10 containers ready, which is equivalent to 200 tons.
