The Government of Japan donated food valued at one million dollars to Cuba on Friday, channeled through the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist those affected by Hurricane Melissa in the eastern part of the country, during a ceremony held on World Food Day.
Japanese funds financed the purchase of 425 tons of rice, as well as grains and oil, which were received at the warehouses of the Provincial Food Company of Havana for distribution in the eastern communities most affected by the cyclone, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment specified through social network X.
The event was presided over by the Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Trade, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, along with the Japanese ambassador Nakamura Kazuhito and the representative of the WFP in Cuba, Etienne Labande. The Minister of Domestic Trade, Betsy Díaz Velázquez, also attended.
The Japanese diplomat indicated that the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa in the eastern part of the country motivated this gesture of solidarity, which will help improve the food supply for the affected individuals, according to a report from the Cuban News Agency.
However, the government took advantage of the ceremony to shift the blame for the delays in distribution onto the U.S. embargo.
Pérez-Oliva stated that the containers with food were held up at the port of Kingston, Jamaica, due to pressure from Washington on international shipping companies. He emphasized that "as a result of the imperialist blockade aimed at suffocating Cuba, food was being prevented from reaching those affected in the expected timeframe," the source highlighted.
The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez reported in September to international forums that more than 7,000 containers of food, medicine, and supplies were being held at Caribbean ports due to the expanded secondary sanctions imposed in May by the Trump administration.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall near Santiago de Cuba on October 29, 2025, as a Category 3 hurricane and became one of the most devastating natural disasters for eastern Cuba in recent years.
The Red Cross estimated more than 60,000 homes destroyed or damaged and 2.7 million people affected, of which 2.2 million required urgent assistance.
The PMA rated the Japanese contribution as the largest financial support that Japan had provided to its office in Cuba up to that point, sufficient to fund emergency rations—1.5 kilograms of rice, 0.9 kg of beans, and one liter of oil—for approximately 190,000 people for one month.
On the same day, Russia delivered 750 metric tons of vegetable oil to the emergency reserves of the WFP in Cuba, as part of a biannual Russian contribution of four million dollars for the period 2025-2026, as shown in a tweet from the WFP.
The Japanese donation adds to a growing pattern of reliance on foreign aid. China donated 90,000 tons of rice to the island in 2026, while the Trump administration funneled 100 million dollars through Caritas Cuba and Catholic Relief Services, excluding the government as an intermediary.
The UN classifies Cuba as one of the 12 humanitarian crises with the least funding in the world, with a deficit of over 52 million dollars in its response plan of 94.1 million.
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