Odds and ends

• Who says there’s no real estate market in Cuba? The St. Petersburg Times covers the ins and outs of the permuta.

• Next week the European Union will discuss its position on Cuba, and whether to abandon altogether the “diplomatic sanctions” that were imposed in 2003 and suspended in 2005. All the background is in this EFE report in Spanish, including a comment from the Czech delegation that democracy in Cuba is a priority, but Prague “doesn’t want to threaten” a blockade. Against whom? Spain?

• A Cuban vice minister of agriculture, Juan Perez Lamas, gave a speech at a rice conference in Havana. According to Granma, he said Cuba’s goal is to cut rice imports by 50 percent over five years. AFP reports that he predicted a five to ten percent reduction in Cuba’s food imports next year. Cuba has been able in 2008 to do without some imports it made in 2007, he said, including 10,000 tons of beans and 18,000 tons of fresh fruit (!).