Vietnam and Cuba have announced a new cooperation agreement between Artemisa's Agroforestry Business Group (Geaf) and Vietnam's Viet Royal International Foods Company for the cultivation and export of agricultural products. The agreement includes the launch of production on 2,000 hectares of idle land in Alquízar, San Antonio de los Baños, and San Cristobal. Planned crops include soy, peanuts, sweet potato, taro, and potatoes for domestic use, alongside green beans and cashews for export.
According to the provincial press, the Vietnamese company will provide machinery, inputs, fertilizers, personnel, and working capital. The Cuban side will contribute land, factories, warehouses, labor, and management. Both parties will jointly handle marketing. Cuba has also committed to supplying fuel for machinery, despite ongoing shortages.
The project follows a model already applied in Pinar del Río, where Vietnamese companies have leased land for rice cultivation. State media reports positive results from those ventures.
Officials in Artemisa emphasized the province's focus on foreign investment, with 68 projects reportedly prepared for investors. Jorge Luis Oramas Vargas, head of the Department of Domestic Trade, Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration, listed avocado, mango, habanero chili, ginger, turmeric, and hibiscus as the province's main export products. "Understand that a ton of hibiscus flowers on the international market is worth around US$2,000," he said.
Oramas added that capturing foreign currency is intended to fund fertilizers, irrigation systems, and machinery, to increase agricultural production. However, no specific details were provided regarding the results of current projects or their impact on local food availability.
The cooperation agreement coincides with broader Vietnam-Cuba relations. Vietnamese state media reported on the 65 Years of Vietnam-Cuba Solidarity campaign, which raised US$12.1 million, four times more than the initial target of US$2.6 million.
Despite cooperation, challenges remain for foreign companies operating in Cuba. In 2024, Agri VMA, a Vietnamese firm with projects in Pinar del Río and the Mariel Special Development Zone, wrote to three Cuban ministries after funds were frozen in its account at Banco Financiero Internacional. The company reported it was unable to transfer US$300,000 to Vietnam to purchase essential inputs for its Mariel facility.
Source: Havana Times