CAMAGÜEY.- The late arrival of a Russian ship carrying refined cooking oil caused shortages in central Cuba, but the situation has improved in the last days, according to officials in the territory.

After the ship arrived with 2,124 tons of cooking oil, the state company in charge of packing and distribution in Camaguey, was able to stabilize the supplies to the stores and the peoples staples in all provinces from Cienfuegos to Las Tunas.

In January, out of the 400 tons they had in the plan, only 170 were distributed, causing shortages, said Raul Verde, director of Logistics in the Camaguey´s Company.

This Saturday, a second ship will arrive at the Nuevitas port carrying 3,000 tons of oil. The packing company will work in three shifts to double production scheduled for March in half-liter bags and the five-liter containers.

In this way, said Verde, they will try to stabilize once and for all the production and marketing of oil that the entity distributes by rail to other provinces, and in this province does so by tanker trucks, own, to ensure the basic basket and social consumption.

Mabel Bueno Pérez, another official at this entity, told that there is currently a daily monitoring of the supply in the CARIBE Store Chain and the CIMEX Business Group, with a direct link to the transportation of oil to each unit.

Lisbeth Lao, a resident of the Julio Antonio Mella neighborhood in the city of Camagüey, one of the most populated cities in Camagüey, said that at the moment there is a supply of oil in the stores and you can buy it without long queues as happened in previous months.

She recently purchased a five-liter container at nine o'clock at night at the Las Palmas store, and there were also half-liter bags.

Other residents of the place, as well as the Lenin neighborhood on the outskirts of the city - also located in an area with a high population and distant from the urban center, although with few collection stores - confirmed the sustained stability in the supply of this product of high popular demand.

The Camagüey province's edible oils and fats company expects to produce 4,844 tons of cooking oil this year.