Cuba’s most prospective industry, coffee, helps the country to be self-sufficient even amid the pandemic. The Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) suggests it is the right time to extend coffee cultivation from hilly to flat areas.
Coffee plantations will be interleaved with fruit trees, and where it is not possible, bananas will be planted with the dual purpose of taking advantage of it as shade and food, a report published by the MINAG says. Normally, coffee crops thrive on the plains in reduced farms, backyards, on farms’ groves, without much technology or technical knowledge, Prensa Latina reported.
Amid the coronacrisis, it is essentially about helping Cuban consumption, leaving a better balance for the coffee of extra quality that the country exports. Plantations will gradually be promoted until reaching 7,163 hectares, which will make it possible to collect more than 4,000 tons.
Moreover, the beans used for Arabica coffee crops come from the east of the island and were obtained from genetic material brought from Vietnam, as part of the cooperation in the field between the two nations.
Additionally, this Cuban-Vietnamese collaboration was carried out in 2015-2020 and allowed to achieve yields of one ton per hectare and the seed to extend the crop onto the plains.
Meanwhile, new projects are underway and others are being managed focused on technological investments to ensure the productive processes in the plains, without having to transfer the coffee to the hills, where there are improving plants, drying rooms and other facilities.
