Valdés Mesa: Cuba Needs to Increase Rice Production

More than 80 percent of the rice consumed in Cuba is imported, yet the country has the infrastructure to produce it and increase output each year, said Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of the Republic, on Tuesday.

During a working visit to the municipality of Los Palacios in Pinar del Río, the Cuban Vice President urged efforts to boost rice cultivation, encouraging people to plant and to sell as much as possible to rice companies for industrial processing in order to raise yields.

“Everything happens within the municipality, so institutions must function. Territories need to be more self-sufficient in food production, especially for the most widely consumed staple among Cubans,” he said, noting that around 120 municipalities in Cuba have agriculture as their main activity.

At the Cubanacán Basic Business Unit, Valdés Mesa reviewed a cooperative production initiative with the Vietnamese company Agri VMA, which obtained land under usufruct rights and has already planted just over 1,000 hectares.

Through this foreign investment model, more than 1,000 tons of rice were marketed in the municipality for inclusion in the regulated family food basket.

Work is being carried out under three different arrangements with the Vietnamese company, and those that do not work in Pinar del Río may be applied in other provinces, Valdés Mesa noted.

“We must make full use of the benefits and experience from this cooperation with one of the world’s top rice producers, which is willing to assist us with technology transfer and seeds,” he added.

“We have the culture, a high level of education, flat terraces, and technology, all developed by Fidel,” said the Vice President, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Accompanied by representatives of Agri VMA and provincial authorities, Valdés Mesa toured harvesting and plowing areas, as well as the Camilo Cienfuegos Industrial Basic Business Unit, which is dedicated to drying and milling rice and currently achieves a yield of 65 percent.

Valdés Mesa highlighted the yields of varieties used in the spring planting season, including those from the Asian nation and the Ginés LP-18, developed at the Los Palacios Scientific-Technological Basic Unit in cooperation with the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

Another Vietnamese company will also help encourage rice production in the province of Granma, becoming the second to do so in the country.

In a meeting with executives from the Los Palacios Agroindustrial Grain Company, Valdés Mesa learned that the entity planned to plant 13,103 hectares this year and produce 21,765 tons of wet rice.

A total of 13,807 hectares have already been planted. In the specialized sector, 6,942 hectares have been sown out of a planned 6,000, while the popular sector has surpassed its target with 7,865 hectares planted out of the 7,103 planned, according to company director Ariel García Pérez.

“We have created momentum and strong commitment, but we must reach 100 percent of producers and account for all rice under cultivation, because Pinar del Río province is in a position to become self-sufficient in the near future,” Valdés Mesa emphasized.