The first week of work in Iberitos after the declaration of the state of emergency has been like this

Some companies are currently immersed in a whirlwind of changes and adaptations, others, such as the pâté company Iberitos, have anticipated a work methodology in line with the safety measures now required by the government.

Since the state of alarm was decreed last weekend, the self-employed and entrepreneurs in Extremadura have been forced to change their work methodology to adapt to the new market needs, production and requirements set by the Royal Decree.

"The situation is very critical, the blow that all the companies are receiving is very strong. We have to take into account that the whole tourism sector is being paralyzed for an indefinite period of time, this is disrupting the forecasts. The Holy Week is already totally lost, we cannot have forecasts in the medium term, we will see the effects in the next 15-30 days. We know that it is going to hurt us a lot but we are not able to know how much, and like us all the small and medium companies, some like those of the tourism sector immediately since they are closed until further notice and others like us in the medium term we are getting the effect of the closures", reference Rafael Román, managing director of the company elaborating Iberitos creams and pâtés.

On Monday, some entrepreneurs and workers were uncertain about how to deal with the new situation: how to organize workers, how they were going to receive their raw materials or how they were going to dispose of the stock they had. Some opted for temporary closure, others for changes in work shifts. All this while the President of the Government was launching new measures to help the business fabric.

While all this was going on earlier in the week, we found companies that were far-sighted and chose to implement measures that are now mandatory. According to Román, the commercial department at Iberitos has been teleworking since the previous week, as they are the ones most at risk of contagion due to the visits they make. As they could not stop production because it is a food product, they also took extreme precautions inside the factory: "We suppressed any type of visit to the facilities, the obligation to maintain distances within the workplace, avoid crowds in the dining room preventing more than six people from gathering where fifty people used to eat, and of course the obligation to work with masks and gloves. The disinfection of machine buttons every two hours and working with gloves and masks came after the state of alarm."

Another relevant fact is found in the transport sector, which also affects the production of these days due to road and border cuts and increased work in some cases, such as courier agencies. " We are increasing online sales, since there are people who place orders by this means, respecting the call to stay at home, although there may be some delays in delivery due to this increase in the demand of courier companies", Iberitos points out.

As for the reception of raw materials for the elaboration of pâté, the company points out that "the supply is guaranteed as long as the transports work, in some cases there will be delays in the deliveries, but not for lack of product, but for the national alert situation that causes that the transports can suffer delays, this could happen mainly in exports". Here, too, the company took safety measures. "At all times we thought about the global of the workers, so in the part of expeditions and reception a system was established so that they do not have any contact with the transporters; they leave the documentation in a tray and pick it up once completed and checked, avoiding contacts."

This is the day-to-day life of Extremadura's business fabric. Rafael Román, managing director of Iberitos, hopes that "He hopes that "the right measures will be taken so that when all this happens, which will happen, the companies will continue standing and we will be able to resume the activity, that no company will fall by the wayside is the best thing that can happen, that work is resumed once all this passes and the help of citizens to return to our customs and habits."