“The last ones they brought looked so swollen they were about to burst, I took a picture and sent it to the provincial Internal Trade Office so they would know.”
14ymedio, Sancti Spíritus, Mercedes García 11 May 2025 — The two children scamper around the bag their grandmother Eugenia has just brought from the grocery store. They clamor for the compote, a Pillín brand, bought at the nearby grocery store at the rationed market. However, as soon as they open one, the sour smell spreads throughout the dining room. Once again, a batch of La Estancia products intended for children has gone bad in Sancti Spíritus.
Eugenia returns to the store in the Kilo 12 neighborhood where she bought the compotes, and the employee’s response leaves her disheartened: “Many of the ones they brought have turned out bad. I’ll file a report, but I doubt they’ll replace them because it’s a general problem.” From the Pillín brand the spoiled guava-flavored batch leaves the children salivating and the family members very upset.
“It’s always a problem with these compotes: when they don’t disappear, they’re delayed, or they arrive spoiled,” the grandmother from Sancti Spiritus explains to 14ymedio. “You can’t trust that they’ll be supplied every month, nor that once they arrive they’ll be in good condition.” The woman details other problems the product frequently presents. “Sometimes it comes with chunks, with pieces of peel if it’s mango, for example, or with little fruit flavor and too much sugar.”
“It’s always something with these compotes, when they don’t disappear, they’re delayed, or they arrive bad.”
Pillín compote, distributed in 200 ml containers as part of the rationed family food basket, is a beverage made from fruit pulp, water, sugar, starch, citric acid, vitamin C, and iron lactate, according to La Estancia executives. The preparation, which is distributed to children up to three years old, contains a significant amount of added sugar, a component not considered appropriate for those ages. Despite its nutritional deficiencies, it is an alternative for children in the poorest households.
But not even these low-income families can consume the food when it arrives at the ration stores in poor condition. “They arrive already swollen, even though the expiration date is August 2026. From the moment they arrive, you can see they’re in poor condition,” laments an employee of a state-owned store in the Kilo 12 neighborhood of Sancti Spíritus. “The last ones they brought looked so swollen they were about to burst. I took a photo and sent it to the provincial Internal Trade Department so they would know.”
The lack of preservatives is at the root of the constant problems the product presents. “We are missing some of the additives because the company doesn’t have the resources to purchase the raw materials of that type sold on the international market. We have tried to maintain production, but the resulting food is unstable, and its preservation cannot be guaranteed throughout the transport chain,” a La Estancia employee who prefers to remain anonymous explains to this newspaper.
“But it must also be said that most warehouses don’t have the conditions to keep the compote for long; it’s too hot, the roofs are made of metal, and they practically turn those spaces into large ovens,” she explains. “Trucks don’t meet all the requirements either. Sometimes they simply place the boxes on the truck bed, which doesn’t have a cover, and just put a tarp over it, so on the way the sun also damages the food.”
“We’re missing some of the additives because the company doesn’t have the resources to purchase the raw materials of that type sold on the international market.”
The La Estancia Food and Beverage company in Sancti Spíritus has been making headlines in the local press and independent media for years, and not exactly for the quality of its products. In 2021, it was forced to shut down its machines due to a lack of funding to package Osito compotes and nectar boxes. Reports of poor quality in its baby food have also been frequent on social media.
Subordinated to the Cuba Rum Corporation and therefore to the Ministry of the Food Industry, La Estancia, established in 2013, has become synonymous with unstable supplies and quality issues. For the state-owned industry, these are negative numbers in the accounts, but thousands of Cuban families experience it as a cataclysm when the sour smell of compote sets their children to crying.
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.