Chronicle on Cuba - June 2006

Economy

June 1: In 2005, Cuba exported 120 tons of organic coffee to Japan and the European Union, in spite of the intense drought that affects the east of the island, said Pascual Caro, head of the ecological project of the Ministry of Agriculture. Caro, an agriculturist at the Central Station for Research on Coffee and Cocoa of the Ministry, added that Cuba started selling organic coffee in 2002, which is at present grown by around 1,500 farmers on about 4,500 hectares. (AFP, 1/6/06)

June 4: Angola`s Oil Minister Desiderio Costa, expressed in Havana the possibility of the Southern African country to cooperate with Cuba in the field of oil. The Angolan official, who expressed this intent in the ambit of a working visit he carried to the Latin American country, stressed that Angola has conditions to cooperate with Cuba in this area. "We are willing to share our experience in the field of oil acquired during the past 30 years. Angola is Sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest oil producer after Nigeria. (Angola Press, 4/6/06)

June 4: Fidel Castro said that socialism means rationality, as well as the opportunity to do things efficiently and he called for the application of that concept in all production and service activities. Castro presided over a third session of a meeting of provincial and municipal government officials, which took place at Havana´s Convention Hall. Fidel referred to ongoing efforts in the country aimed at saving energy and improving the people’s quality of life. Castro said that by making use of efficient work the country can save much of the electricity it is currently consuming, which would translate into noticeable saving, bearing in mind the high price of oil at the world market. Fidel stressed the positive results of the meeting, in which local government officials exchanged views on the advancement of the national energy program or Cuban Energy Revolution, the fight against dengue, the progress of urban agriculture and the commercialization of agricultural products at local marketplaces, as well as the advancement of national social programs undertaken by the Cuban revolution under the so called Battle of Ideas. (ACN, 5/6/06)

June 6: Cuba seeks to increase commercial relations with Brazil, particularly transference of technology in the alternative fuels sector, said a business source. Brazilian sugar-cane producer, Aecio Marcondes, indicated that “last May Cuban officials visited (their) plants”. (Notimex, 6/6/06)

June 7: Venezuela has agreed to share technology with Cuba for oil exploration, production and refining, Venezuela's state oil company said. Intevep, the research arm of state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, signed the agreement, which includes projects to increase Cuban oil production, improve the quality of its fuels and optimize its refineries, a company statement said. Intevep will work with Cuba's Ceinpet petroleum research center. (AP, 7/6/06)

June 9: An increased tax on remittances sent to Cuba in dollars will bolster the flow of foreign exchange into state coffers, but will create further difficulties for the hundreds of thousands of families who are divided between Cuba and the United States. "Supposedly, the increase is for the agency carrying out the money transfer. But it's the customer who ends up paying," a 45-year-old Cuban woman who lives abroad, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IPS. The Cuban authorities "know that they can continue to squeeze because we will continue sending money back." The measure means in practice that a money transfer for 123 dollars will be converted in Cuba into 100 "convertible pesos" or CUCs, which were created in 1994 as a substitute for the US dollar in internal transactions. Up to May 31, the ratio was 120 dollars:100 CUCs. Two currencies are presently used as legal tender in Cuba: the regular peso and the CUC. The CUC was pegged to the dollar until October 2004, when the U.S. currency was removed from circulation on the island. (IPS, 9/6/06)

June 10: The Cuban Food Industry is making an over-150-million-dollar investment in an effort to increase the supply and quality of food for the population. The investment, considered the largest ever made by the food industry, was announced in the report submitted to the Cuban parliament's ordinary session, attended by Fidel Castro. Cuban Food Industry Minister Alejandro Roca said his sector has grown by a 10-percent average annual rate over the past five years, and has seen a 7-percent growth during the first four months of this year, even when all scheduled investment projects are not yet being implemented. (ACN, 10/6/06)

June 10: Details about the ongoing expansion program of the Cuban nickel industry in the eastern part of the island were presented by the Minister of Basic Industry, Yadira Garcia, as part of a series of parliamentary committees taking place in preparation for the opening of Parliament. The minister explained how the government has been able to sustainably develop this industry by means of mixed capital enterprises where foreign capital provides management experience and technology, while Cuba maintains total control over production. The expansion project is being undertaken with a primary focus on new energy-efficient technologies that will allow Cuba to produce 80,000 tons of nickel in a first phase, using three industrial plants, which will later be expanded to 100,000 tons when a fourth plant begins operations. These new fuel-efficient technologies will enable the industry to eliminate the use of electricity, providing a boost to the national power grid, said the minister. Garcia also mapped out additional perspectives such as the production of Cobalt, a byproduct of the nickel industry. Cobalt is currently trading at $US 33,000 per ton, and Cuba holds 20 percent of the world's cobalt reserves. (Granma, 11/6/06)

June 12: Canadian businesspeople in Cuba are steaming mad about what they say are unfair US trade practices, as American exporters steadily increase their market share in a country Washington officially regards as an enemy state. "This is a serious, serious problem," said Sam Raina, president of the 52-member Canadian Business Club, an association of Canadian companies operating in the Caribbean country. "The Americans are playing very unfair games." Raina says pressure from the US Treasury Department recently caused his Canadian banker - HSBC Bank Canada - to close his corporate and personal accounts and to cancel his credit cards, because he lives and does business in Cuba. "There's no bank in the world that would defy the US Treasury," he said during a recent interview at his office in western Havana. "This has all of a sudden become an issue because U.S. trade with Cuba is getting higher and higher and stronger and stronger. (Toronto Star, 13/6/06)

June 13: Cuba has declared an end to the daily blackouts that have wreaked havoc on peoples' lives and the economy since the collapse of former-benefactor the Soviet Union in 1991. In the latest sign Cuba is recovering from a long economic crisis, Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told parliament a $US1-billion program to link hundreds of large generators to the energy grid meant there was 1000 megawatts more power available for the summer when demand peaks. "In less than eight months conditions have been created that guarantee that there will be no blackouts in our country due to a lack of generating capacity," the minister said in her report published by the official media. (Reuters, 13/6/06)

June 18: EXPOCARIBE 2006 trade fair opened its doors at the Heredia Convention Center in Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest city. Raul de la Nuez, Minister of Foreign Commerce, said the commercial event, in its 14th year, will boost business in eastern Cuban and increase this region’s negotiation capacity. The fair runs until June 23.
Referring to Cuba’s increased foreign trade during the first quarter of 2006, the minister named Venezuela, China and Spain as countries with which trade is on the rise. After the opening ceremony, de la Nuez, local Communist Party officials Misael Enamorado Dager and Rolando Yero Garcia and Bertha Delgado Guanche, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, toured the exhibition area where some 200 firms, more than half Cuban, are exhibiting their products. (Granma, 19/6/06)

June 19: The Guinea Bissau Tourism Minister, Francisco Conduto de Pina, began an official visit to Cuba, invited by his Cuban counterpart, Manuel Marrero. Conduto de Pina told the press Cuba’s experiences in tourism can contribute to related plans in his country, and highlighted Cuban collaboration in the development of education and health in his country. (Prensa Latina, 19/6/06)

June 21: Colombian businesspeople have been in contact with Cuba’s pharmaceutical institutions proposing production in that South American nation, the Colombian Minister of Social Protection Diego Palacio Betancourt affirmed in Havana during a visit accompanied by a delegation from his country. The Colombian government is ready to resume purchasing vaccines manufactured in Cuba, as it did from 1992 to 2002, and has decided that it is willing to look for alternative ways to attain "any product necessary for public health which is of high quality and has a good price." During their stay on the island, Palacio and his delegation met with Dr. José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Political Bureau and the Cuban health minister and toured several scientific institutions including the Immunoassay Centre. (Granma International, 21/6/06)

June 21: Cuba, with an unemployment rate close to 1.9 percent, is moving towards a system of labour policies to achieve greater quality products and security, an expert said. Santos Prieto, an official of the Cuban Ministry for Labour and Social Security (MTSS) said that Cuba works for consolidation of regulations to guarantee public health and working security. The Cuban system for sanitary surveillance for workers was recognized by specialists from the International Labour Organization, during the International Meeting of Trade Unionists and Specialists in Labour Security and Public Health taking place in Havana. (Prensa Latina, 21/6/06)

June 21: Cuba is investing in its ethanol refineries with hopes of increasing its production of renewable fuel fivefold as it bets on growing ethanol demand in the face of rising petroleum prices, a leading sugar expert said. Luis Galvez of the Cuban Research Institute for Sugar Cane Derivatives said by 2010 Cuba hoped to be producing 500 million liters (about 130 million gallons) of ethanol annually, which he said would be a fivefold increase of what it produces now. Galvez spoke to about 200 representatives from a dozen countries at an international congress on sugar and its derivatives. He did not give a current production figure for Cuban ethanol, but did say the island had 17 distilleries capable of producing up to 180 million liters (about 48 million gallons) annually. To increase production, Galvez said, Cuba must modernize 11 of those existing plants and build seven additional new ones. He did not say how much the improvements would cost. (AP, 21/6/06)
 
June 22: Cuba plans to nearly triple raw sugar output in the future from this year's 1.1 million to 1.2 million tonnes, official news agency AIN said. "The Sugar Ministry is working to increase cane planting by 30 percent with the goal of sugar production reaching 3 million tonnes," AIN reported. Cuba also plans to increase ethanol production for domestic use and export.  Output was expected to increase to around 1.5 million tonnes in 2007, with a big jump in 2008 as new cane comes on line. Planting got off to a slow start this year as drought persisted across much of the country, but has picked up in recent weeks due to above-average rainfall. Production Director Eglis Greck Rodriguez said in May he expected a 15 percent increase in sugar cane for the 2007 January to May harvest due to increased sowing (100,000 hectares) and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides, improved irrigation and other measures. Mills will double what they pay for cane starting in 2007, according to ministry sources. (Reuters, 22/6/06)

June 22: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage visited a number of important construction projects under way in Havana Province along with Ivan Ordaz Curbelo, first secretary of the Communist Party in this territory, and other leaders. Lage showed special interest in seeing first hand the progress of several home building projects as well as the creation of offices to make it easier for the population to do the required paperwork involved in housing. The tour began in Artemisa and ended at La Cooperativa, Guira de Melena, where 190 new homes are being built, the majority of which should be finished this year with the committed cooperation of the residents of Playa Cajio, also affected by hurricanes. (Granma, 22/6/06)

June 24: Cuba and Venezuela have set up a joint railroad company under the name Empresa para la Infraestructura Ferroviaria Latinoamericana S.A. (Ferrolasa), the Government of Venezuela said on June 24, 2006. The new company is headquartered in Caracas and will use Cuban experience in the railroad sector. Ferrolasa is expected to officially start operations in August 2006. The main activity of the joint company will be to evaluate new investments in the Venezuelan railroad sector as well as modernisation and maintenance of the railroad infrastructure and installations. Ferrolasa will also provide technical assistance for modernisation and maintenance. Venezuela will hold a 51 percent stake in the joint company, while Cuba will have the remaining 49 percent. The authorisation for the creation of the joint railroad company was published in Venezuela's Official Gazette on June 13, 2006. (Latin America News Digest, 24/6/06)

June 25: A shipment of 8,000 tons of cement arrived in the Jamaican capital from Cuba-- some two months after officials expected it would arrive. The cement, which will help ease a shortage that has slowed construction on the island, will be issued for local distribution, said Commerce Minister Phillip Paulwell. It was not clear why the shipment was delayed. Paulwell said it is the first of several shipments expected from Cuba to ease the cement shortage. Jamaica began negotiating with Cuba to supply cement after the main local producer, Caribbean Cement Company Limited, temporarily suspended production in March following claims of substandard product. (AP, 26/6/06)

June 26: Belarus is to supply refined sugar produced from sugarbeet to Cuba, the Belarussian agriculture ministry announced. The agreement was reached during an ongoing visit by a Cuban delegation to Minsk, the Belarussian capital city. Cuban officials will visit Belarussian sugar refineries before July 4 to assess production conditions there, after which contracts would be signed, the agriculture ministry said. (Dow Jones, 26/6/06)

June 26: Cuba will sign a multilateral economic complementary agreement with Mercosur at the end of July during the group’s presidential summit scheduled to be held in Cordoba, Argentina. However the participation of Fidel Castro has not been confirmed.
The Cuban embassy in Buenos Aires confirmed the coming of the delegation from Havana July 20/21, when Argentina officially hands the rotating six months Mercosur chair to Brazil. “Cuba is participating with a delegation but it must not be interpreted as a step towards the integration of Cuba to Mercosur, but rather for the specific purpose of signing this very significant multilateral agreement”, indicated the Cuban embassy in a release. Argentina’s Deputy Secretary for American Economic Integration and Mercosur Affairs Eduardo Sigal said that the “agreement with Cuba will basically unify all bilateral treaties with each Mercosur country member”. (Mercopress, 26/6/06)

June 27: Cuba's struggling sugar industry won't make its harvest goals this year, the government acknowledged, saying that inefficient mills and a late start proved to be obstacles difficult to overcome. "The recently finished harvest demonstrated that hard work and final results don't always correspond," the Communist Party daily Granma reported. In February, when sugar prices rose to 17 US cents a pound, Fidel Castro announced his country - after having closed sugar mills and furloughed workers in 2002 - would try to increase its production. The government announced it would shoot for a 3 million ton harvest. But experts say it is now producing about 1.3 million tons a year - less than a fifth of what was grown in the 1950s. The nation that four years ago had 156 operating mills now has just 42, and says 28 of them began the season late. Of 22 low-production mills, eight couldn't grind the amount of sugar cane that had been projected and two were shut down due to "reiterated inefficiency and high per-ton cost," Granma reported. Had all the mills operated at capacity, Cuba could have produced another 43,800 tons, the paper said. But Granma did not offer any actual production figures for this year's harvest. "The late start couldn't be beaten," the paper said. (AFP, McClatchy Newspapers, 28,30/6/06)

June 27: A blackout of about two hours affected areas in the municipalities of Diez de Octubre and San Miguel del Padrón, in Havana. The reasons for it are not currently known. Similar power cuts were reported in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, which indicates that the new energy plan promoted by Fidel Castro from generators does not seem to be a definitive solution. (Cubanet, 27/6/06)

June 29: Thousands of professors and students from the University of Havana will be participating in the control and distribution of fuel in the island’s capital. “We were called to participate in a task for the Revolution on a voluntary basis”, a professor said. According to a student who talked with the press, professors and students will be working on trucks distributing fuel, controlling sales and the route of vehicles. All educational activities have been suspended until next September. (AFP, 29/6/06)