A private Vietnamese company’s combine is harvesting rice outside of Havana, directly cultivating Cuban soil for the first time to help alleviate the nation’s severe food shortages.
In Los Palacios, 118 kilometers (73 miles) west of the capital, the Cuban government has given 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of agricultural land to Agri VAM, a division of Vietnam’s Fujinuco Group.
Although Vietnam has previously given Cuba advice on rice farming, this is the first time that a private company has carried out the actual cultivating.
The government approved the move after a 52 percent plunge in overall agricultural production between 2018 and 2023, according to data from the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana.
The rice numbers are even worse. Total rice production dropped from 300,000 tons in 2018 to 55,000 tons in 2021, in the depths of the COVID pandemic. The number is slowly recovering, authorities say.
Rice is a staple of the local diet, with Cubans consuming 60 kilos (132 pounds) of rice per person per year.
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