Vietnam rice farmer riles Cuba’s hunger
Vietnam’s Rice Cultivation Takes Root in Cuba
For the first time a private Vietnamese company is planting rice on Cuban soil, a move that could ease the country’s chronic food shortages.
Agri VAM Secures 1,000 Hectares
- The Cuban government has granted Agri VAM, a subsidiary of Fujinuco Group, a 1,000‑hectare plot in Los Palacios, 73 miles west of Havana.
- Vietnam had advised the island on rice, but this is the first time a foreign firm is actually farming the land.
- The decision followed a 52 % drop in total agriculture output between 2018 and 2023.
- Rice production itself slipped from 300,000 t in 2018 to 55,000 t in 2021, a decline intensified by the COVID pandemic.
- Cubans consume about 60 kg of rice per person yearly, making the staple vital for the local diet.
Promising Yields, Weighty Hurdles
During a May media tour, an Agri VAM representative claimed a current yield of seven tons per hectare, a stark contrast to the Cuban norm of 1.5 t/ha.
Vietnam once faced similar shortages in the 1980s, but today it is the world’s third rice exporter and a respected consultant to other growers.
Despite favorable climate and temperature, Cuban growers lack essential supplies — fertilizers, fuel, and reliable transport. Agri VAM can import some materials, yet it must also confront fuel shortages, logistical problems, and frozen assets, an issue highlighted by economist Omar Everleny Pérez.
Agri VAM and other foreign firms may be generating profit, but their earnings cannot be transferred abroad due to banking liquidity shortages and a lack of foreign currency.
In May, Agri VAM unfurled a letter urging the Cuban government to unfreeze $300,000 in its account at the state‑owned International Financing Bank.
Foreign Investment: Cuba’s Crucial Lifeline
Cuba is entrenched in a severe economic crisis and urgently seeks foreign investment. Vietnam and other partners have shown keen interest.
In July, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced new measures to “energize foreign investment,” allowing wholly foreign‑owned companies in Havana’s hotel sector.
Three years of promises are followed by Russia’s deputy prime minister Dmitry Chernyshenko who told media in May that Russian businesses want to invest $1 billion in Cuba, offering preferential financing rates.
He cautioned that success is “still hard work to be done” and that “impossible to achieve things immediately, as if by magic.”
