The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel visited on Thursday the facilities of the Los Palacios Grain Agroindustrial Company in Pinar del Río to oversee the joint rice project between Cuba and the private Vietnamese company Agri-VMA, while millions of Cubans continue to lack regular access to the most basic cereal in their diet.
The visit comes at a time of unprecedented rice collapse: in 2024, Cuba produced just 80,000 tons of rice, which is 13% of the 600,000 tons needed annually, and the government imports 100% of the grain that it distributes through the ration book, which guarantees only about three kilograms per person per month.
Accompanied by Roberto Morales Ojeda, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, Minister of Agriculture Ydael Pérez Brito, and local authorities, Díaz-Canel engaged in discussions with executives from Agri-VMA—including its president Nguyen Van Quang—and with Cuban workers in the fields.
Agri-VMA has been operating in Los Palacios for about three campaigns with 1,000 hectares of land in usufruct, and during this period, it has harvested 7,900 tons of rice with an average yield of 5.21 tons per hectare, well above the national average of 1.7 tons per hectare recorded in 2024.
The general director of the Cuban company, Michel Ballate Camejo, emphasized that currently they are harvesting nine tons per hectare: "A yield we haven't seen in the country for many years."
The stated objective is to reach a total of 4,000 hectares to ensure the basic food basket and generate surpluses for sale in foreign currency, with the aim of creating a self-sustaining model.
However, the reality on the ground contrasts with the official optimism. The ration book is in collapse and in several provinces, the delivery of rice has arrived in minimal amounts or in poor condition.
In February 2026, there was no rice available in the state system in Las Tunas, and in May 2026, international reports described Havana warehouses with 5,000 assigned customers that only offered rice, sugar, and peas.
Ballate himself acknowledged the structural shortcomings of the project: rice is drying on roads and runways due to a lack of adequate industrial infrastructure, and the "energy problem is very severe." The company operates between 13 and 14 hours daily and aims to install a biomass furnace that would save 2,050 liters daily of diesel.
The project's history is not without its tensions. In July 2025, Agri-VMA lodged a complaint with the Cuban government about having 300,000 dollars frozen in the International Financial Bank, which prevented them from transferring funds to Vietnam to purchase raw materials. Despite this, Ballate assured that Vietnamese entrepreneurs "have not hesitated for a second."
Díaz-Canel described the results as "productive prosperity" and noted that the experience could be replicated in other provinces: "All the experience that is being accumulated here can even be transferred to other places."
In March 2026, the leader had already stated that “in a short time, Cuba will be able to become self-sufficient in rice”, a promise that seems distant when national production in 2025 barely reached 111,000 tons, which is equivalent to 36% of what was harvested in 2018.
Filed under: