Thursday, April 10, 2008

Foreign investment in agriculture?

Raul Castro says Cuba needs more foreign investment.

There are three ways to get it. Cuba could work harder to market Cuba as an investment destination. It could improve Cuba’s investment climate. Or it could open sectors that have been largely closed to foreign investment, such as agriculture.

It seems that the last option is being followed. La Jornada reports on a press conference by foreign investment minister Marta Lomas, where she says the “fundamental effort” in agriculture remains Cuban alone, but points to the possibility of joint ventures to increase rice and cattle production.

La Jornada also says there are proposals circulating that would create joint ventures to supply the tourism sector. This would reflect an admission that the current system, where a few state enterprises are assigned the task of supplying food to the tourism sector – and tourism businesses cannot contract directly with farmers or cooperatives – has failed. After more than a decade of tourism development, Cuba still imports fruits and other fresh produce for hotels.

A second report (in English) on Lomas’ comments is here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe Sherritt will be interested in new agricultural opportunities in Cuba!

Sharpshooter said...

If these idiots whom happen to run the agriculture in Cuba would have any brains, they would make land available that is full of marabu now and unproductive, let the farmers produce all they want, pay them reasonable prices for their produce, and avail them of seeds, fertilizers and implements for agriculture at cheap prices, and they would not need to share any profits with any foreign companies. But that would make too much sense and brains and common sense is something they lack. Cuba did not need any foreign companies before the revolution to exploit the agriculture business and we had all the produce and more varieties of them that anyone could eat. And it was all done without government intervention and without foreign investment,it was done by Cuban farmers.
But because of their ideology, the communists bureaucrats prefer to have foreigners meddle in the agriculture instead of leaving that to real Cuban farmers. And they still wonder why their economic policies have all failed!