NATIONWIDE department store El Corte Inglés has started selling its grocery produce in Cuba following a deal with the Italian company Farmavenda, a spokesperson for the group confirmed this week.
The chain's own-branded pastas, sauces, soft drinks, tinned vegetables, meat and fish – retailed under the names of Aliada and El Corte Inglés itself – are now being sold in two shops on the Caribbean island, one in the centre of the capital, La Habana and the other in the Malecón neighbourhood of the city.
Farmavenda buys the produce from El Corte Inglés via the former's holding in Spain, then exports them to Cuba.
It will add another 10 or so stores on the island this year and next year to its list.
El Corte Inglés, which has stores all over Spain and a limited number in Portugal, has already used the same trading framework to retail in China.
Just over two years ago, the chain signed a deal with the Chinese company Ou-Jue to distribute its own-branded Aliada and El Corte Inglés groceries, as well as those of other Spanish manufacturers, in the Asian country.
But the store's launch in Cuba is particularly significant: El Corte Inglés' founder, Ramón Areces, did his training in La Habana at the El Encanto warehouses.
