Cuban Vice-President Visits Vietnam-Cuba Rice Cultivation Project

Havana, Aug 5 (ACN) Cubans consume more than 80 percent of all rice imports, though the island counts on the necessary infrastructure to produce all that cereal amount and increase the annual rice output, said Cuban vice-president Salvador Valdes Mesa.

During a working visit to the westernmost municipality of Los Palacios, Pinar del Rio province, the vice-president called to encourage rice cultivation.

At the Cubanacan company, Valdes was interested in learning from a cooperated rice production project led by Vietnam’s Agri-VMA company, which was granted lands in usufruct and has already planted over one thousand hectares with rice.

Thanks to this foreign investment modality over one thousand tons of rice were contributed to the rationed family food basket in the western municipality. Another three investment modalities are being considered to be implemented with the Vietnamese company, if not appropriate for Pinar del Rio, they would be implemented in other Cuban provinces, said the vice-president.

Cubans count on rice-production culture, high instruction level, flat terraces and technology, all this developed by the Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro, said Valdes Mesa, who also member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party Central Committee.