MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Vietnamese teaching Cubans how to grow rice efficiently

Rice and black beans is basic Cuban diet

Cuba plans to enlarge to 40,000 hectares a Vietnamese-aided test farm to expand production of rice, official media said on Monday.

Given the positive results of the joint project, a new phase is currently being analyzed, according to an Agriculture Ministry official quoted by the state news agency Prensa Latina.

Up to now the program has had “concrete results in the areas of demonstration, consultation and production” the head of the Vietnamese side of the project, Bui Van Duong, said.

Bilateral cooperation in this field was launched in 2002, first in the eastern province of Granma and then was extended to other areas on the island. Vietnam is the chief supplier of rice to Cuba, according to government officials.

Cuba imports over 400.000 tons of rice annually, 60% of the total amount consumed by the island’s population. Rice is an essential ingredient of Cubans daily diet.

Each of Cuba’s 11.2 million residents consumes an average of 11 pounds of rice per month, or more than 60 kilos (130 pounds) a year per person, or roughly 600,000 tons, according to official figures.