Strong historical and cultural relationships have existed between Cuba and the Dominican Republic. A part of the Cuban national legacy is in some way related to the DR, and Dominicans always remember that it was Cubans who restarted their sugar production in the 19th century.
Cubans from the east of the island have surprising cultural and linguistic likenesses to the people of the Dominican Republic. In fact when Francisco Henriquez y Carvajal (the brother of Federico and the father of Camila, Pedro and Max) was named president in 1916, he was teaching at a school in Santiago de Cuba. He had to head back to his country at full speed before the arrival of the US Marines, who ultimately occupied the DR a few months later and remained there for eight subsequent years.
Few people will recall that the largest national political organization, the Revolutionary Party of the Dominican Republic, was founded in Havana and owed its name to its affinity to the Cuban Revolutionary Party (authentic). It was founded by Juan Bosch, who lived in our country for several years, married a Cuban and left us an excellent book titled La isla fascinante, whose reading a few years ago helped me to better understand who I was.
All told, it’s understandable that Cubans and Dominicans continue being ingredients of one sole pot, a fact that they proclaim with pride. Intellectual exchanges continue to take place to the benefit of both societies, and these have been quite intense in the last few years under the government of Dominican President Leonel Fernandez.
This is praiseworthy of the Fernandez government, as well as the fact that it was under his first mandate that the reestablishment of diplomat relations with Cuba was produced.
State curbs on buying and selling in the marketplace were eased and Cubans were told they could buy and sell real estate. The rule change that has sent the fledgling market economy into a subdued frenzy as would-be property tycoons begin to hone their skills in a fast-changing business environment.
However, government statistics indicated the food import bill was a major worry. Cuba imports up to 60 percent of rice it consumes and, by the latest count, bought more than 400,000 tons of the commodity to meet basic needs, Juventud Rebelde newspaper reported.
The import bill is set to rise as domestic demand for the staple grain this year is likely to exceed that level and may reach 600,000 tons to meet the basic needs of Cuba's population of 11.2 million.
Despite numerous moves to relax state control on food distribution and supply, Cubans depend on rationing to fulfill basic needs for rice and other consumables.
Grain Research Institute Director Telce Gonzalez said self-sufficiency in food was crucial to Cuba's economic well-being.
"The first challenge is to produce what we need," he said, adding that, although Cuban agriculture expanded areas under rice cultivation, it still had a long way to go to realize that goal.
This year, the government will need to import almost double the quantity of rice it produces for domestic consumption, new estimates indicated.
Vietnam is Cuba's main supplier of rice. Neither side has disclosed the terms under which Cuba buys rice from Vietnam, a socialist nation in an advanced stage of transformation into a market economy.
The prospect of the state trade sector having to pay more for imports sent the government into overdrive this month. There were calls to institutions to galvanize rice farmers to produce more and reduce dependence on imports.
The campaign aims at raising awareness of about 50 varieties of the grain that can be grown in the island's different ecosystems for maximum rice yield.
Cuba's agriculture suffered when it lost export markets as they ditched communism and switched to capitalist options, or cut imports with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The government frequently has set targets to boost rice production and reduce dependence on imports but has missed reaching any of the goals.
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