The Logistic Business Group of the Ministry of Agriculture (GELMA, in Spanish) will start implementing the payment through En Zona in September in the four commercial centers of the capital. This alternative benefits the producers and makes the procedure easier.

The implementation of this way of collecting money through QR code in the four shopping centers of the capital is a guide, and according to the results, spread it to other provinces in the country. Taidi León Arteaga, a commercial specialist at the shopping center Las Guasimas, in the municipality Arroyo Naranjo, explained that in a first moment, a train will be carried out to the producers, to introduce them in the electronic commerce.

She explained that payment methods to date were through checks, transfer and the POS, but now they can also do it through En Zona, not to have                                               cash circulating.  

She informed that among the benefits of using this new way we can find that producers do not incur debt, because the payment is done immediately. Besides, they can deliver the products at the moment, contrary to what happened with the check, sometimes you should wait a maximum of ten days to have the products.  

León Arteaga emphasized that this is a much faster way of purchasing and the products have a discount for using this method of payment.

Jorge Luis Arzola Gaínza, director of the Agricultural Supply Company of Havana said that this option makes the sale to small producers more practical. They do not depend on cooperatives to make small purchases, besides that, it eliminates the percent the cooperative puts because of its marketer function.

He declares that as limiting they could only make purchases of up to one thousand five hundred pesos and not big quantities, since this method of payment competes with what the cooperative or big companies demands, which will not use it in the first moment.

Moreover there are few producers having bank accounts linked to the platform En Zona which could do the payment. We are optimist thinking  interest in this option increases. 

The shopping center Las Guasimas is the biggest of its kind in the capital and assists El Cotorro, Arroyo Naranjo and San Miguel del Padrón municipalities. Because of its extension and logistic capacity it is also in charge of supplying the grow houses the needed stuff and construction material in the whole province.   

Oscar Machado Baldoquín is the leader of the center. He declared that rustic houses are among the highly demanded products. He says they are now distributing them, to fulfill an agricultural plan of providing 200 of them.   

The producers purchase them thanks to the bank credits. It is one of the most important options the government has made emphasis in to develop agriculture.

Other products which are very popular are: machetes, files, rubber boots and biological products to fumigate. He said the process of supplying is stable, although it does not always assure the demand. They try to supply the main needs of the productive ways.

 Source: Cubadebate

Photo: Alianet Beltrán Álvarez/ACN