The Mincin Industrial Group, according to its president, Marlene Graciela Noval Rivas, is an organization made up of 26 companies.
It has 15 territorial companies, five national ones in Havana and one commercial company.
“The fundamental task of this group is to market industrial products, from the donations received, pre-processing products, other responsibilities that we have with the state reserve, cleaning products, the basket. In addition to everything that was sold in industrial markets,” he reported.
Noval Rivas specified that the group has been in a difficult position, due to US sanctions and since the pandemic, and has had to appeal to innovation in processes.
He said that the group’s companies do not have operating losses and stressed that they have resorted to innovation processes. “They have stopped being marketers of finished products in the industry and have started looking for products to which value has been added.”
The group has marketed products from management forms that have a producer vocation, it has sometimes obtained packaging or raw materials.
In addition, they have placed products from MSMEs in their network of Unitiendas (wholesale stores of the group companies) in the country.
He highlighted that OSDE companies have had the power to create their own businesses.
Marlene Graciela Noval Rivas, president of the Mincin Industrial Group, stated that alternatives have been sought based on all these processes.
“Our companies have the power to create their own businesses and look for their own alternatives. “We are here to help, to share experiences between provinces,” she said, adding that there are many territorial alternatives.
“For example, in all the stores in this sector today they sell hygiene products that are not those of the industry, those of Suchel, but from local producers.
“In Havana we have a MSME that was a local development project, which produces a significant number of toiletries and cleaning products and we sell them the packaging that we make with another organization. That is an example in Havana, but we sell them in provinces such as Matanzas, Cienfuegos… Almost all of our stores, not to be absolute, sell toiletries not only imported, but also from local productions,” he commented.
“We have ventured into many programs with our companies, such as the Espuma program, based on an important social service and which is an example of the link between the public and the private and what can be done between institutions, since it is an initiative in conjunction with the Federation of Cuban Women,” she explained.
“These are people, mostly women – although they could have been men – who can work, but not leave their home, because they are taking care of elderly people or children, and who can provide washing services at home and put on clothes. agree on the price with your neighbors.
“There are 82 women in this program in the country. We do not have more, because one of the conditions of this service is that the equipment that we give them to provide the service, in case of breakage, is replaced immediately. At this time, we cannot expand, but we can maintain what has been achieved with a group of people, in this public-private alliance,” said Noval Rivas.
He clarified that “they are not just 82 people, but families, communities, because they are there.”
Later, the president of the Mincin Industrial Group commented that “we have done things that we did not previously assume we would do. Nine of our companies apply Decree 87, which although the benefit is not much, the average salary has increased by 1,000 pesos.
“We have an average salary of 4,000 pesos, insufficient in the face of the current inflation process, but our 3,200 workers can see an improvement in the working conditions of our entities, because that is also part of the sense of belonging that the workers have and to make them feel better.”
He added that they are working on the creation of two state MSMEs, which will be dedicated to services, and they are also working on the powers they have from foreign trade, with the efforts of a commercial company that is studying the market with new variants and alternatives. .
He referred to the National Commercial Transportation Company, whose fundamental activity is in Havana even though it is a national company.
“This is the company that distributes the regulated family basket with a tremendous effort, a company that has not managed to exceed its CDT of 72% with many difficulties in terms of resources, tires, batteries, but where people grow every day, with a sense of responsibility that those products reach the warehouses,” he said.
According to Noval Rivas, although commerce is not the sector that has most ventured into foreign investment, there are alternatives and today there is a commitment to venture into that area, because it is necessary.
“We have to modernize. Our organization has gone towards electronic commerce, banking, which has multiple benefits for the sector, and we must advance further, it is not only about the products that we can bring, but about learning from international trade,” he stated.
