• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 04 / 27 / 2011

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By: Rose Ana Berbeo.10:35Havana, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) A national program for the recovery of the Cuban cacao industry anticipates a harvest of 4,000 tons in 2015, matching a record set in the 1960s, the Agriculture Ministry announced Tuesday.

Elexis Legra, director of coffee and cacao for the Business Group of Mountain Agriculture (GEAM), told Prensa Latina that the five-year plan includes the planting of more than 4,000 hectares of cacao, for a total of 11,000.

These plantations will make it possible to achieve production of over 3,000 tons, Legra said. Current harvests have not exceeded 2,000 tons.

In recent decades, the Cuban cacao industry suffered the effects of problems with agriculture technology and a lack of supplies such as fertilizers and other resources, essentially due to the impact of the so-called special period (the economic crisis that began in 1991) and the U.S. economic and commercial blockade.

Legra explained that as part of the plan to revive the cacao industry, Baracoa, now home to more than 70 percent of cacao plantations, will increase the number of hectares planted from 4,400 to 5,000.

Crops have been planted areas such as Sagua de Tanamo, Tercer Frente, Imias, Maisi, Palma Soriano and coastal areas of Granma province, all in eastern Cuba.

Along with coffee, cacao is an important source of earnings for Cubans who live in mountain areas. Some 80 percent of cacao is harvested by individual farmers, while the other 20 percent is harvested by state farm workers.

Legra said cacao is also showing improvement as an export item. Its price on the international market has remained at over 3,000 USD per ton in recent months.

Coffee and cacao are being included for the first time on the agenda of the 5th Congress on Forestry, which begins Wednesday and runs to Friday at Havana's International Conference Center, with experts from 21 countries in Latin America, North America, Europe and Africa.