Aid comes from Brazil
By Manuel Alberto Ramy
HAVANA – Last Thursday, Aug. 30, Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz welcomed Fernando Pimentel, Brazil’s Minister for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
The national media reported succinctly on their meeting, saying that the two men discussed bilateral issues, etc. In another report, the daily Granma published a list of the visitor’s activities. Reading all the publications, we did not find the important news development that we suspected but couldn’t be certain of. Confirmation came from Brazilian sources.
What we learned was that Cuba will receive from the Brazilian government a 200 million-dollar loan, under the More Foods project, a loan that I haven’t seen mentioned in the national media. The memorandum was signed by Mr. Pimentel and Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade. The $200 million will be delivered in three installments: the first during this year and the other two in 2013.
According to Brazilian sources, the loan will finance the acquisition of supplies for the agricultural sector, which has been defined as strategic by our government because it must guarantee alimentary security to the Cuban people at a time when the prices of food are skyrocketing, the country does not have sufficient resources, and the international outlook is dim.
Certainly, the country needs supplies for the effective application of its policies; it also needs to update its park of machines for farming. The current park is obsolete but the cost of each unit is high. One tractor costs about 100,000 dollars and the price of the machines designed for sugar-cane cutting is about $250,000 each.
Cuba does not, I repeat, does not have money for this kind of expenditure, but (there’s always a “but” when information is insufficient) I don’t know if the memorandum covers the purchase of those machines.
If I may point out, despite the real efforts being made by the government with regard to farm and livestock production, efforts and results don’t match as they should. The mismatch between the measures implemented and the results obtained should not be attributed only to the lack of tools and equipment, which are truly necessary because they increase production and productivity.
There are other factors, like the nonexistence of an adequate market for supplies, the delay in applying the measures that broadened Law No. 259, the permit for tenant farmers to build their homes on the land they farm, the lack of recognition of the variants of agricultural cooperatives as autonomous enterprises, and the delay in announcing the pertinent laws. The announcements made remain announcements until the laws that back them up are published.
The same situation is facing the sugar sector, where the mills are not self-contained enterprises but production units subordinated to the large business group Azcuba, the successor to the late Ministry of Sugar. In every province, the real centers of production report to Azcuba.
To sum up, expanding my comment to the entire range of economic activity, I would say that we lack what we need the most: an integral conceptualization of the model that will tell us and define exactly what we’re talking about. We need a clear definition of the system being established.
Continuing with the topic of farm-and-livestock production, I remind the readers that the Brazilian company Oderbrecht a long time ago signed a memorandum of agreement to manage the sugar mill named “5 September” in the province of Cienfuegos, in south-central Cuba. So far, we don’t know if it’s already managing it or not.
Other reliable sources tell me that initially Brazil was interested in taking over the management of some 10 sugar mills. What has happened? Did Pimentel at least firm up the “5 September” deal during his recent visit? It would be interesting if he did, because the South American colossus enjoys a high degree of development and efficiency when it comes to the production of sugar and the exploitation of its derivatives.
Today, the international price of a pound of sugar ranges between 22 and 24 cents of a U.S. dollar. At that price, and estimating that producing one pound of sugar costs us 8 cents of a dollar – an index of low productivity – sales would be very favorable for us.
The best known and firmest step taken by Oderbrecht in Cuba takes us 50 kilometers west of Havana, to the port of Mariel, visited by Pimentel. That is the site of the most important Development Zone built in Cuba. Investment runs about 900 million dollars.
(See the YouTube video we published on the topic by clicking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lh1zMkIogU&feature=plcp )
The idea is to erect in Mariel (especially on the western shore of the bay) a major industrial complex: a base for containers, factories, assembly of small products, and a logistical center for the exploration, drilling and storage of crude oil produced in the Cuban zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It will be the nation’s most important port.
Needless to say, the work being done in Mariel has flung open the doors to manual laborers. By the time the work is completed, more than 3,000 workers will be employed – at least that’s what I was told by people involved in the project.
“We are greatly interested in collaborating in the definition of that model, so we can bring the largest possible number of Brazilian companies,” told me an aide to minister Pimentel. His words should not be taken as a ritual statement but as an extension of the policies of President Dilma Rousseff, who earlier this year visited Cuba and toured Mariel.
This is magnificent proof of our cooperation with Brazil and our other brothers in Latin America, our natural environment.
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