Manuel Benítez describes himself as an architect passionate about inventions, technologies and creativity, and to be fair he could not have defined himself better.
Today he leads a group of around 30 people in the Self-Employed Workers modality, which includes professionals from different branches who are making a difference in the construction industry in Cuba. Their contribution: one hundred percent Cuban and one hundred percent natural raw materials.
“We are a chemical industry that applies our knowledge to construction, industry and the home, but we are also a research, development and production center. What we have done is to arouse enterprises and new producers that were immobilized in the country,” explains engineer Luis Arza, a member of the group’s management.
BLS-PARROT conducts the primary production of more than 40 products destined for the national industry, while manufacturing is completed in small and medium-sized enterprises.
“What we have done is to re-start businesses that were paralyzed. Today we have contracts with around 80 enterprises and factories that depend on our products. From here we provide them with raw materials and start up small, medium and large factories, but we do not offer finished products. Our goal is to get other enterprises up and running, and they are the ones who bring the finished products to the population.”
BLS-PARROT’s clients include mainly state-owned factories, such as the Geomineras and Gases Industriales enterprises, local industries and those producing construction materials throughout Cuba.
Almost two years ago, BLS-PARROT was operating in the backyard of a house, and today, it already has a 9,000 square meter plant. Despite its short life span, this project, which aspires to become a medium-sized enterprise, contributed in 2020 to saving the country some five million dollars in import substitution, a figure that could double this year.
Made up of professionals with experience in the field of finishes for construction systems, BLS-PARROT has developed procedures and methods for the conception, development and use of technologies, and equipment designed for their implementation. One of the materials it offers is a special mortar made with Cuban products, for the construction of a house in 24 hours by means of 3D printing, something only the most developed countries dream of.
They also created a wide variety of resins that are the basis for making all kinds of construction finishes (paints, stuccos, monolayers, rust inhibitors or enamels), as well as adhesives for paper and cardboard, and binders for briquettes, all of which are mostly imported today. In addition, they are developing the first Cuban color chart, alongside the Ministry of Construction (MICONS) and the Center for Research and Development of Construction, focused on the production of color pigments based on domestic natural stones. So far, most of the pigments in Cuba are purchased abroad.
The venture’s production capacity is around 30 tons per day, and is distinguished by its one hundred percent ecological elaborations, without the use of Portland cement or petroleum-derived additives. In its decoration processes, the venture uses artificial molding of soft stones, such as jaimanitas, limestone or decorative granite, based on a chemical reaction, which occurs without cement and which has among its components the use of residual materials.
“We intend to continue intercepting development. Cuba cannot start now to develop technologies that are 20 or 30 years old, but we have to try to intercept them and create based on what exists today as a novelty at the international level. The world is looking towards ecological products, biopolymers, and we have to look in the same direction,” members of the work team note.
Thus, this team passionate about inventions, technologies and creativity, works to contribute to the economic growth of the country, and their laboratories will surely continue to produce new natural products, with the Made in Cuba seal.
