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Rice exports from the United States to Cuba increased fivefold in January and February 2026, accumulating a value close to five million dollars, according to data from US-Cuba Trade shared by Peter Bachmann, president of USA Rice.
In January, U.S. rice sales to the island surpassed 2 million dollars, accounting for 5.8% of the total agricultural exports from the U.S. to Cuba that month. In February, the product reached nearly 1.9 million dollars and ranked as the fourth most sold food item to the island, according to Directorio Cubano.
This jump contrasts with the mere 10 million dollars that rice totaled in the entire fiscal year 2025, a figure that already represented a 437% increase compared to the previous year, according to the same trade records.
The rise occurs in the context of a collapse of Cuban rice production, which dropped from 304,000 tons in 2018 to just 27,326 tons in 2023, and although it rebounded to around 80,000 tons in 2024, it still meets less than 15% of the estimated internal demand of 600,000 tons annually.
Official data acknowledges a drop of around 40% in production, which has triggered a reliance on imports and led the regime to allocate more than 300 million dollars in 2024 for the purchase of rice from abroad, exceeding the 400,000 tons imported that year.
The traditional suppliers to the island are Vietnam, which accounts for over 70% of the total, followed by Brazil, Guyana, and Colombia. Cuba also receives donations: South Korea donated 24,600 tons in December 2025 through the World Food Programme, and China committed to providing 90,000 tons in several deliveries, of which 15,600 tons arrived at the port of Havana on March 26.
In that scenario of chronic scarcity, the growth of the Cuban private sector has created room for new commercial operations with American companies, which operate under the legal framework that allows cash-paid agricultural exports.
The total agricultural exports from the U.S. to Cuba reached a record of 476.1 million dollars in the fiscal year 2025, an increase of 19.4% compared to 2024.
However, trade faces structural obstacles. "Cuban importers generally have to pay in cash and in advance, because access to short-term credit is restricted," explained Bachmann.
This is compounded by the restrictions of the embargo and internal barriers such as state control in key sectors. The Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa admitted in December 2025 that the state lacks the resources to expand rice production and proposed that the private sector finance the necessary machinery, acknowledging that "we cannot achieve this in the short term."
The American agricultural sector believes there is room to expand sales if credits are made easier and investments in the Cuban private sector are allowed. Bachmann noted that other products such as dairy and vegetables could follow the same path as rice in the coming months.
Since 2001, the accumulated agricultural exports from the U.S. to Cuba under current legislation have exceeded 8 billion dollars, placing the current surge in rice within a long-term trade trend that the island's production crisis only serves to accelerate.
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