Havana/In an official visit to Cuba, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Le Can, delivered a donation of 10,000 tons of rice to the island’s government and promised another 1,500 in an upcoming shipment. The containers with the food were discharged in a Mariel dock and, according to the authorities on Saturday, it will be distributed as part of the regulated quota.
The Vietnamese leader, who culminates his stay in Cuba on Monday, said that the donation is a “gesture of gratitude and solidarity with the Cuban people,” he said Cubadebate. The official media also pointed out that the burden corresponds to the agreements established during the visit to the island of the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam, to LAM, in September last year. “Vietnam will continue to support Cuba in the production of rice, to contribute to the food security of the Caribbean country,” said Le Can.
The Cuban Vice Minister of Internal Commerce, Aracelys Cardoso, stressed that “once again, Vietnam tends our hand in difficult times.” He also added that “this rice donation is a sign of the special nature of the links between Cuba and Vietnam, this cereal being an essential element of the feeding of the Cuban people.”
The Vice Minister of Finance of the Asian country met before with the Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, and underlined the “strategic” character of the bilateral links “in particular the economic, commercial, financial and cooperation Granma.
Vietnam is the main supplier of rice in Cuba, where cereal is a basic food and is consumed as average more than 60 kilograms per person per year
Vietnam has located in the special area of Development of Mariel seven companies, which makes it the second country with the largest number of companies in that free zone. It is also the main supplier of rice in Cuba, where cereal is a basic food and is consumed as average more than 60 kilograms per person per year. The aid is not limited to the shipment of sporadic donations, but the Asian country has been involved in sowing rice on the island for years, although without obtaining the expected results.
14ymedio has registered in several reports The adventures of Vietnamese in one of the most important rice fields in the country in the Sierpe, Sancti Spíritus. Asian technicians returned to the province this year after the interruption in 2022 of the program with which Vietnam advises Cuba in production.
The agreement between both nations entered into force in 2002 and, in addition to providing equipment and machinery for Cuban producers, for 20 years kept dozens of specialists and Vietnamese technicians in Cuba. The Sierpe area was the main commitment of this collaboration and in its plain dikes were built, cleaned channels and local specialists were trained. The laziness of the Cubans, however, ended up frightening the Asians.
It was also a Vietnamese company the first to receive land in Cuba to sow rice in Pinar del Río
It was also a Vietnamese company the first to receive land in Cuba – in principle, 308 hectares – to sow rice in Pinar del Río. The company Agrivma It will be in charge for three years of growing the grain in the municipality of Los Palacios. The plan aims to conclude the planting of the first 1,000 hectares of rice in the first months of 2025 and the intention is to grow up to 5,000.
Cuba reaped about 80,000 tons of rice in 2024, just 11% of what consumes annually and only 30% of what produced six years before, according to official data. Cultivation numbers agree with those of many other agricultural productions that have been drastically reduced.
In recent years, state and private markets have been filled with imported packages from nearby countries such as Panama and Mexico or even Spain and Italy. The daily ration, which points to nutrition in homes, has cut to the point of disappearing for several days a month in many houses.
