The gas is essential for production because, without it,” you cannot make ice cream at all,” explains an employee.
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 6 December 2024 — There is less hustle and bustle than usual around the white and blue facade on Rancho Boyeros Avenue these days. Coppelia’s main ice cream production plant in Havana has been shut down for more than two months due to a shortage of ammonia, a gas essential for freezing the product. The company’s ice cream is sold at cafes and food service establishments, including the iconic ice cream cathedral on 23rd and L streets in the city’s Vedado district.
Niurka, a company employee whose name has been changed to protect her identity, has been laid off since late September. Though she still collects part of her salary, her income has been significantly reduced. “Everyone knows that no one at Coppelia lives off their salary,” she admits. In Lawton, the neighborhood where she lives, Niurka has at least twenty customers who buy boxes of ice cream from her, “direct from the factory.”
“They ask me when I’ll be getting more but nobody is giving us a date. Every week I call to ask and they tell me that the ammonia still hasn’t arrived,” she explains. Niurka’s dilemma, like that of many other Coppelia employees, is whether to wait until the raw materials arrive so she can return to her job, or look for work somewhere else in order to support her family.
“In recent years we’ve had several shutdowns, some due to supply shortages. We’ve also run out of containers and some flavors but, this time, it is a complete shutdown. They cannot make ice cream at all because there is no way to chill anything,” she says. “It’s no longer a question of making vanilla ice cream instead of chocolate because there is no ammonia for either one.”
A limited run of higher-quality Coppelia ice cream was produced for the the G77 Summit in Havana
Another employee recalls that in September 2023, when production had fallen due to a shortage of ingredients, a limited run of higher-quality Coppelia ice cream was produced for guests attending an official event at the G77 Summit in Havana. “They virtually militarized the factory to prevent employees from stealing some of the ice cream,” he says. On the day they moved it out of the plant, they allowed the workers to sample “a small cup of it.”
By November of last year, the ups and downs at the plant were having a severe impact at the giant Coppelia ice cream parlor, which was forced to close its doors because the factory was not producing enough ice cream to serve its sit-down customers. On that occasion, the problem was a shortage of milk and sugar, which halted production of a product in high demand on the island, especially in months when temperatures rise above 25 degrees Celsius.
Though thermometers began dropping early this month with the onset of winter, not even Havana’s mild seasonal climate was enough to prevent would-be customers at the country’s premier ice cream parlor on Friday from becoming visibly frustrated. The outlet has been closed for several days. “After Hurricane Raphael we were only open for a few hours on two days because there was no ice cream,”a groundskeeper explained. He reported, however, that Coppelia was selling four-liter boxes of ice cream despite the shutdown. “But they did not come from the Boyeros factory because it is closed. We have not received anything from there for more than a month and a half.” As for when things might be up and running again, “There’s no reopening date. We just don’t know,” he said.
Coppelia’s closure coincides with the opening of the Havana Film Festival on Thursday, leaving a bad taste in customers’ mouths. “In the old days, when you left the cinema, you would head straight over to Coppelia. It was like a ritual,” recalled a young man outside the Yara theater, who ultimately decided to go instead to a privately owned café that serves ice cream. Though its prices are not subsidized like at its state-owned counterpart, there is no interruption in service. “They don’t seem to experience hurricanes or breakdowns,” he noted ironically.
“Ice cream production is one of Cuban industry’s most energy-intensive manufacturing processes”
A retired engineer who worked in the dairy sector for more than two decades explained the complex situation the factory is facing. “Today, it’s a shortage of ammonia but you have to remember that ice cream production is one of Cuban industry’s most energy-intensive manufacturing processes, he said.” Coppelia uses a two-step refrigeration process that involves vapor compression, which relies on ammonia.”
The engineer details the complexities of operation. “They need temperature extremes. One at the high end to process the milk and other raw materials, and another at the low end to allow the product to cool and harden,” he explains. “The whole process consumes a lot of electricity and cannot be interrupted at any point. A power outage that affects the sequence can ruin the ice cream.” His explanation, coming in the midst of the third disruption to the nation’s energy grid in less than two months, underlines the vulnerability of industry.
“The plant has its own generators but there is still the problem of fuel supply. The industry is not seen as a strategic or vital sector so it does not get high priority,” he added. “As things stand now, even if it survives the ammonia crisis, it will be very difficult to continue producing a reliable, high-quality product.”
Coppelia’s Havana factory is located on the same site on Rancho Boyeros Avenue as the former San Bernardo Lácteos S.A factory, whose original owners lost it to nationalization after Fidel Castro came to power in January 1959.
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