HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuba said yesterday it had leased farmland to a Vietnamese company to grow rice, a first since the 1959 revolution which kicked all foreign landowners out.
The Communist Party daily, Granma, said a state agricultural company had partnered with the unnamed firm for three years to cultivate the grain on 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) in western Pinar del Rio province, hinting the lease and acreage would be extended.
“For the first time, a process of handing over land to a foreign company is being carried out to take charge of its cultivation,” engineer Jorge Feliz Chamizo, who is the deputy director of the Granos de Los Palacios agroindustrial company, was quoted as stating.
Cuba consumes up to 700,000 metric tons of rice annually, most imported from Vietnam.
But the import dependent county’s main staple has been in short supply in recent years due to an economic depression sparked by a lack of convertible currency to import food, fuel, spare parts, raw materials and agricultural inputs.
Local rice production peaked at around 250,000 metric tons of consumable rice in 2018 before the crisis began, and has fallen more than 80% since then, the National Statistics Office has reported.
Granma also reported the venture would be the first to hire labor directly, instead of through a state-run hiring hall.
Many investors complain they are forced to hire labor through the hiring halls in hard currency which then pay their employees in pesos and in general make managing their labor force more difficult.
Foreign investment has declined in recent years due to tougher U.S. sanctions, according to the government, though no statistics are available.
Western diplomats and businesses also report difficulties repatriating profits due to the country’s cash shortage.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in December the government would change the labour practice as part of reforms this year to the foreign investment law.