Vietnam has already cooperated in rice production, but this time it will do so with a lease contract for a Vietnamese company
Por EFE/14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – A Vietnamese company has become the first foreign entity to receive land in Cuba – initially 308 hectares (761 acres) – to plant rice on a farm in the south of the province of Pinar del Río, an unprecedented experience on the island since 1959, state media reported on Wednesday.
The project had already been announced last November, although it was not known that the lands had been handed over for usufruct (a form of leasing). It would be the same promise that the Government made to the Russians, as Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, said, in 2023.
According to Reuters, the Kremlin adviser said that the island had offered Russian businessmen the right to use the land for a period of 30 years. The conditions involved, he explained, “both long-term land leasing and duty-free import of agricultural machinery, the granting of the right to transfer profits in foreign currency, and much more. Of course, we are also waiting for the reduction of bureaucratic barriers.”
The Vietnamese company – for which no details have been provided – will be responsible for planting rice in the municipality of Los Palacios, some 100 kilometres southwest of Havana, for three years.
The plan intends to complete the planting of up to 1,000 hectares of rice in the first months of 2025 and the intention of the Asian firm is to expand to 5,000 hectares, added the official newspaper Granma.
“This is a considerable figure, considering that for the cold season, Los Palacios proposed a plan for 3,500 hectares,” the newspaper said.
In addition to bringing in its own specialists, the Vietnamese group will provide fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and other resources necessary for production, as well as hybrid varieties from the Vietnam, which reduce the demand for seeds from 150 kilograms per hectare to 30.
Yields of seven metric tonnes (7.7 US tons) per hectare are expected in the first year, and this will increase to eight metric tonnes per hectare in the second year.
Since last October, an experimental model was launched in Cuba with the planting of a hybrid rice seed – imported from Vietnam – in more than 15,000 hectares in various regions of the island, with the aim of increasing production and improving yield, which has been declining for several years.
Cuba requires about 700,000 metric tons of rice annually for national consumption. According to official data, the island produced less than 30,000 metric tons in 2023.
Vietnam is Cuba’s main supplier of rice, which is a vital food on the Island and on average more than 60 kilograms are consumed per person per year. This is not the first time that the Vietnam has cooperated with Cuba in rice production. It did so in La Sierpe, in Sancti Spíritus, until 2022 , when it finally decided to cancel the project, tired of Cuban inefficiency.
Vietnam and China have donated shipments of rice to Cuba in recent years to support the Island, which spends $2 billion annually on importing basic food products.
Translation by Translating Cuba.
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