Cuban rice, bean output up sharply through July
Saturday, September 5th, 2009| Published on Saturday, September 5, 2009 | |||
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) — Cuban rice and bean production increased significantly in the first seven months of the year as government efforts to boost output and reduce imports of both commodities appeared to be bearing fruit.Rice production was up 15.4 percent to 98,000 tonnes and rice lands planted increased 43.8 percent, while beans jumped 26.4 percent to 45,000 tonnes, the National Statistics office reported on its web page (here) this week.
The cash-strapped Cuban government has embarked on a program to cut import costs by increasing the island’s food production and hopes to slash rice and bean imports, staples of the Cuban diet, by 50 percent by 2013. President Raul Castro, who took over for his older brother Fidel Castro in February 2008, has increased what the state pays for crops, decentralized agricultural decision-making and leased vacant state lands to farmers and individuals. Cuba produced 195,000 tonnes of consumable rice in all of 2008 and imported 567,000 tonnes, most of it from Vietnam’s state-run Northern Food Corp under preferential financial terms. (more…) |
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