World Grain - June 2017 - 22

COUNTRY FOCUS

Focus on Cuba
Heavily dependent on grain imports, the
communist country would benefit from
increased trade with the United States
by Chris Lyddon

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Cuba is the largest country in area and population terms in the
Caribbean and it relies on imports to feed its population. Trade
with its neighbor the United States remains limited and future
U.S. policy on selling to the country is unclear.
In its Grain Market Report, the International Grains Council
(IGC) put Cuba's total grains imports at 1.7 million tonnes in
2017-18, unchanged from the year before. Wheat imports are put
at an unchanged 800,000 tonnes. Maize imports are put at an unchanged 900,000 tonnes.
The IGC put Cuban rice production in 2017-18 at 400,000
tonnes, unchanged from the year before, while imports are put at
100,000 tonnes, also unchanged.
In a look back at the Obama administration, published in January, ahead of the inauguration of President Donald Trump, U.S.
Wheat Associates wrote in its Wheat Letter that "One of the
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tration's reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba and
accompanying efforts to reduce the regulatory burdens around
trade with that market. Cuba imports no U.S. wheat today, but
could be a top 10 market with the end of the trade embargo. Unfortunately, the embargo is still in place and
no U.S. wheat has been sold, but these acWLRQV WR LPSURYH UHODWLRQV ZLWK &XED ZHUH
THE BAHAMAS
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According to remarks quoted on the webCUBA
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site of the Cuban food ministry, Iris QuiCAYMAN
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ñones Rojas, president of the food industry
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group GEIA (Grupo Empresarial de la InduVWULD $OLPHQWDULD SXW ZKHDW ÀRXU SURGXF
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tion at more than 500,000 tonnes and said
that it had doubled in the past decade.
According to the 5 de Septiembre website, Cienfuegos
Cereales, the largest organization of its kind in Cuba,
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country. Its production in 2017 is predicted to be 175,000
tonnes. The company has 382 workers and is currently producing around 550 tonnes a day, 50% of its capacity.
Radio Rebelde reported on its owners, the state milling company Empresa Cubana de Molinería, which has two plants in
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Key Facts
Capital: Havana
Population: 11,179,995 (July 2016 est.)
Religions: Nominally Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jewish, Santeria.
note: prior to CASTRO assuming power.
Location: Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea
and the North Atlantic Ocean, 150 kilometers south of Key
West, Florida.
Government: Communist state. Chief of state and head
of government: General Raul Castro (since Feb. 24, 2008).
Economy: The government continues to try to balance the
need for reforming aspects of its socialist economic system
with a desire for firm political control. During the April 2011
Cuban Communist Party Congress, leaders approved a plan
for new economic guidelines. Since then, the government
has incrementally implemented these economic reforms. The
government has cut state sector jobs as part of the reform
process, and it has opened up some retail services to selfemployment, leading to the rise of entrepreneurs. Approximately 500,000 Cuban workers are currently registered as
self-employed. The Cuban regime has updated its economic
model to include permitting the private ownership and sale
of real estate and new vehicles, allowing private farmers
to sell agricultural goods directly to hotels, allowing the
creation of non-agricultural cooperatives, adopting a new
foreign investment law, and launching a "Special Development Zone" around the Mariel port. Since the mid-2000s,
Venezuela has provided crude oil and oil derivatives to Cuba
on preferential terms, supplying as much as 120,000 to
170,000 barrels per day. Cuba barters for the oil, in part,
with the services of Cuban personnel in Venezuela, including
some 30,000 medical professionals.
GDP per capita: $11,600 (2014 est.); inflation: 4.5%
(2016 est.); unemployment: 2.5% (2016 est.).
Currency: Cuban pesos (CUP): .9957 pesos equal 1 U.S.
dollar (May 18, 2017).
Exports: $3.428 billion (2016 est.): petroleum, nickel, medical products, sugar, tobacco, fish, citrus, coffee.
Imports: $12.34 billion (2016 est.): petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals.
Major crops/agricultural products: Sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock.
Agriculture: 3.9% of GDP and 18% of the labor force.
Internet: Code: .cu; 3.432 million users.
Source: CIA World Factbook

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