The first edition of the Best Entrepreneur of 2024 Award, convened by OnCuba and the British embassy in Cuba, went to Yucasabi SRL. This private enterprise already manages two restaurants and specializes in producing and marketing cassava bread, an unleavened bread made with cassava flour that comes from the pre-Columbian diet of the Caribbean.
“This is a business that has been in operation for more than two years, focused on the rescue and, consequently, the encouragement of the production of cassava bread, a product of nutritional, cultural, and historical importance,” stated the minutes of the jury of the award, announced this Monday at the residence of the British ambassador in Havana, Sir George Hollingbery.
Made up of Dr. Ileana Díaz, professor, researcher at the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy of the University of Havana; Milena Recio, editorial director of OnCuba and Osvaldo Pupo, journalist, UNESCO official in Havana, the jury also considered the various associations and chains of Yucabasi, as well as its distribution and export capacity towards local and Caribbean niches.
“This first edition of the Award has left us with many lessons and experiences for those of us who make up OnCuba. We have never carried out an initiative like this before and we have come to the end more aware of the possibilities we have to help the growth and maturation of the Cuban entrepreneurial sector,” said a statement read by journalist Lied Lorain, representing our communication platform.
“On behalf of Hugo Cancio, general director of OnCubaNews; Milena Recio, editorial director, and our entire team, we also extend our gratitude to all the contestants who submitted their proposals, and in particular to the winner,” the document emphasizes.
Keeping tradition alive
Surprised by the award, which was contested by a dozen finalists, Yudisley Cruz, president of Yucasabi, said that the team at the enterprise “has fallen in love with the cultural value of cassava bread” and since the beginning of the business they decided to join forces so that “the product becomes one of the dishes that is recognized within Cuban cuisine.”
“Many people will incorporate it into their diet and we hope that it will be as culturally recognized as the taco is among Mexicans,” she cited as an example and, overcome with emotion, thanked the families for keeping the culinary tradition of making cassava bread alive as part of a five-century-old identity.
“We also aspire to make it a part of Cuba’s gastronomic diplomacy,” said Cruz, a graduate in Economics and native of Isla de la Juventud, escorted by her partner and co-entrepreneur Herminio López Díaz.
The prize, endowed with 5,000 USD that is given as an investment fund, would allow the enterprise to diversify the products derived from cassava and modernize the production process that, potentially, would connect it with markets in Europe and the United States.
Yucasabi makes gluten-free products available for celiacs, vegans, and consumers attentive to food health, and they align, in their processes, with international sustainability standards.
Intangible heritage
The business participated in the efforts to have the practices associated with cassava bread recognized as World Intangible Heritage by UNESCO, which has allowed this preparation to reinforce its role as a cultural ambassador.
This fact was praised at the award ceremony by the director of the UNESCO regional office in Havana, Anne Lemaistre.
“Since December, the practice of making cassava bread was recognized on the list shared by five countries in the region — Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela and Cuba — and that was the product of years of collaboration and preparation of this file,” said Lemaistre, who thanked OnCuba and the British embassy for the initiative of the award.
The official also highlighted the African indigenous heritage of cassava bread, particularly in the Afro-descendant Garifuna communities of Honduras, who consume the dish, while drawing attention to its consumption in eastern Cuba, in families that descend from the Taino communities.
Right decision
For Ambassador Hollingbery, the award ceremony was one of the last activities at the head of the embassy, as he ends his tenure on the island, a destination chosen by him.
“I made the right decision. Many ambassadors spend a lot of time talking to the government and I have tried to be something more and, in the end, it turned out that talking to the people, to the population, to entrepreneurs in particular, was the right decision,” said the diplomat, who at one time was also a small businessman in his country.
“I fervently hope that the Cuban government understands that here, in this place, there are friends and it is with these friends that progress can be promoted,” concluded Hollingbery.
