Cuban province assures coal production for exports

UNION DE REYES, MATANZAS, Cuba, Mar 19 (ACN) Faced with the scarcity of resources, the local Forestry Base Business Unit (UEB) in this western province is implementing alternatives in order to ensure the production of charcoal for export, a product that is traded on the international market at 320 dollars per ton (t).
Yoel Salgado Curbelo, director of the entity that belongs to the Enterprise for the Conservation of the Cienaga de Zapata (Ecocienzap), told the Cuban News Agency that the use of means of transportation with animal traction allows reserving liquid fuels derived from petroleum for the burning of wood as part of the productive process.

After the charcoal is made, which takes between 15 and 17 days, it is transported to the UEB, where a calibrated machine processes it to eliminate impurities and obtain the appropriate weight and size, explained the director of the unit located at kilometer 104 of the National Highway.

He commented that the charcoal is obtained mainly from the burning of jucaro wood, of remarkable hardness, in forests planted especially for that purpose, which avoids the use of other species of environmental importance.

He also explained that in one day they prepare around 300 sacks of approximately 20 kilograms each, and most of them are taken to the port of the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZED Mariel) to be exported to European countries such as Spain and Italy.

According to Salgado Curbelo, after producing 500 tons in 2023, for the present stage, his collective intends to reach that figure again, with the incentive of payment by results to its workers.