Madrid/Up to 30,000 tons of rice will arrive in Cuba in the coming weeks from China, as announced by the official press this Monday, announcing the arrival of the first 2,400 to Havana and the same amount to Santiago de Cuba. The delivery in the capital had its own reception ceremony, with the presence of authorities, including the vice prime minister, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, and the Chinese ambassador, Hua Xin.
“This assistance is another palpable example of the solidarity that unites us. We trust that, with the joint efforts of both countries, no difficulty will be able to hinder our path forward,” said the diplomat at the event, held at the Loading and Unloading Center of the Ministry of Internal Trade.
“We deeply recognize and appreciate this help in complex moments where levels of aggressiveness are rising and the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against the Cuban people is intensifying in an unprecedented way,” said Pérez-Oliva.
“We deeply recognize and appreciate this help in complex moments where levels of aggressiveness rise and the economic, commercial and financial blockade intensifies in an unprecedented way.”
In the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa and Mayabeque two pounds will be given per person, while in Havana it will be one and a half and on Isla de la Juventud one. However, it is not specified how far it will reach the east, although the provinces of Guantánamo, Granma and Santiago de Cuba were expressly mentioned.
According to Hua
The donation is part of the Emergency Food Assistance Project from China to Cuba, within the framework of which similar shipments have already been delivered. In 2024, The Asian country delivered just over 20,400 tons as part of the same program, of which the first shipment –408– arrived in six flights, due to the nature of urgency that the Island was suffering at that time. South Korea and, especially, Vietnamare other countries that have made similar donations of cereal.
The aid, however, barely covers a minimal part of the needs of the population, which traditionally consumed around 600,000 tons annually.
For this year, the authorities announced the planting of about 200,000 hectares, double that of 2025, but far from the country’s needs. In 2024 Cuba harvested around 80,000 tons, 30% of what it produced six years before. Between 2012 and 2018, the Island experienced growth in harvests, exceeding 300,000 tons.
The quantity was, even so, small for the population, which forced the cereal to be imported as well. However, in 2024, almost 100% of the rice distributed through the supply book had to be purchased.
However, in 2024, almost 100% of the rice distributed through the supply book had to be purchased.
Attempts to make the yield prosper are currently proving fruitless, just compare what is produced by the lands given in usufruct to the Vietnamese company AgriVMA. While national production reflects yields of around two or 2.5 tons per hectare – compared to the five it achieved in the past – the Asian company reaches 7.2 on its land in Pinar del Río.
Furthermore, according to data from the cooperation program between States, yields of up to 9.14 tons per hectare have been reported in some varieties with which this joint project works.
At the end of last year, Roberto Caballero, member of the National Executive Committee of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians, raised a heated controversy when commenting on the television program Cuadrando la Caja that the State was allocating resources beyond its possibilities to the rice production program, a crop that, in his opinion, does not fit the soil and climate conditions of the Island – like the potato. The technician proposed focusing efforts on products that were more likely to prosper and stated that neither of these two were culturally national. “We are not Asian, that is not a Cuban habit,” he stressed, provoking countless criticisms on social networks.
