Cuba Closes More Than 100 State-Run Agricultural Firms

Cuba Closes More Than 100 State-Run Agricultural Firms

HAVANA – The Cuban government will close more than 100 "inefficient"
state-run agricultural enterprises and transfer upwards of 40,000
workers to other jobs, Communist Party daily Granma said Monday.

The announcement was made by Agriculture Minister Ulises Rosales at a
meeting of the National Association of Small Farmers in the central
province of Villa Clara.

Rosales, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, cited the need to
"eliminate no fewer than 100 companies that are unsustainable in the
current economic situation," and to "relocate" more than 40,000 farm
workers.

The president of Cuba, Gen. Raul Castro, has announced agricultural
reforms aimed at increasing food production to substitute imports, a
policy that he considers one of national security.

Cuba imports as much as 80 percent of the provisions consumed by its
11.2 million inhabitants at an annual cost of several billion dollars.

That situation cannot be maintained considering the government's acute
lack of liquidity brought on by the international financial crisis, the
drop in foreign trade, the continuing U.S. economic embargo and other
factors. EFE

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=353744&CategoryId=14510