Cuba’s cropland embraces 6.8 million hectares. This surface is distributed in 3.3 million hectares reserved for tropical crops, including sugarcane, coffee, tobacco, citrus fruits, root vegetables, plus 1.08 million hectares of pastures. On the other hand, state-run crops include sugarcane, tobacco, citrus fruits and other tropical fruits, in addition to coffee. Other exportable produces are rice, bananas and plantains for domestic consumption. The private sector, for its part, spare land for vegetables, root vegetables, as well as tobacco. Cuba’s number-one crop is sugarcane, the island nation’s top export. In the same breath, the country features a network of centers for biological control scattered all around the island that massively manufacture biological pesticides to be used against crop-attacking plagues and insects.
Cuba’s export capabilities have picked up steams in recent years following the 1990s crisis. Mining accounts for roughly 67 percent of all exports, with nickel leading the pack. The tobacco industry –especially hand-rolled cigars and loose tobacco- also amass a good chunk of exportable items. A quarter of exportable commodities has to do with frozen seafood and shellfish. Other items shipped overseas are scrap iron, cement, fruit juices, coffee, beverages and licorices, honey and steel planks. In a region-by-region breakdown, Europe gets the lion’s share of Cuban exports with 42 percent of the total, with Spain, France, Italy and Holland marching ahead with 40 percent off that slice. Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and the Netherlands Antilles also take in bulks of Cuban-made items.
Imports over the past decade accounted for a considerable chunk of the country’s intake of foodstuffs, fuels and oils, chemicals, machinery and other items. The Americas continue absorbing a good deal of all Cuba’s exports with 49 percent of the total, followed by Europe with 39 percent. Most imports hail from Europe, though volumes have dwindles considerable in recent years.
Over the last decade, Cuba’s industrial output has jacked up its volumes of steel, nickel, fabrics and cement. In the same breath, the island nation has increased its productions of sulfuric acid, chloride, tires and electronic components. Other top industrial staples are nickel, power generation, fertilizers, oxygen, acetylene, oil byproducts, car batteries, paper, cardboard, gunny sacks, corrugated containers, steel spin-offs and certain foodstuffs. For its part, the sugar industry has laid out a new strategy in an effort to achieve far more efficiency in processing sugarcane and its byproducts. The textile industry, with vast experience under its looms and over fifteen factories scattered all across the island nation, is a standout as well.
Cuba’s fishing industry is a potential exporter that has kept up a rising trend since 1994, though authorities enforce laws and regulations that guarantee a rational use and full protection of the environment and the nation’s marine resources. Most catches take place along the insular platform, while aquiculture, shrimp and fishing in international waters are also commonplace.Industrial production embraces the catching of lobsters and shrimps, plus the existence of 17 processing plants for canning high-quality seafood.In recent years, Cuba’s seven shipyards have been cranking out plastic boats suitable for exportation. Those same facilities have been carrying out other tasks, like repairs of boat engines for specialized companies. On the other hand, Cuba has vast experience in catching marlins, especially along the northern shore.
Since the 1959 Revolution, the organization of Cuba’s economy has been centralized. That means that all industrial sectors are fully developed by the State. In recent years, the economy has gotten a new lease on life following a deep nosedive in the early 1990s as a result of the tumbledown of the Socialist Bloc in Eastern Europe –home to nearly 85% of the island nation’s trade ties with the outer world. In addition, the White House tightened the economic embargo on the island, leaving virtually no loopholes in the law. In 1993, some strategies were reordered, including the enactment of a decree that gave foreign companies the green light to invest on the island and set up joint ventures with different Cuban firms. Right now, the local travel industry is the economy’s number-one income source. The country has developed a good deal of tourist circuits that clinch efficiency and quality in a number of services. For its part, the tobacco and cigar-making industry continues to be a major economic sector and a source of multiple exports to many parts of the world. In the same breath, the overhaul of the sugar industry and its many byproducts is raking in good earnings for the national coffers. The country counts on considerable mineral reserves. Deposits of nickel, chrome, copper and manganese are important and bring in excellent profits. The making of pharmaceuticals based on important scientific breakthroughs is giving the island of Cuba a spot among the world’s top medication producers. These items are exported in addition to such exotic commodities as shrimps, lobsters and sponges. More recently and based on the opening of new economic concepts, the country has made progress in the field of offshore oil drilling and the production of gas, though its outputs fail to meet the country’s full power demands. Cuba’s major trade partners are Canada, Japan, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
In the early 1990s, Cuba had 46,555 kilometers of paved roads, some 241,000 cars and 208,400 trade vehicles.The country’s nationalized railroad system operated in 4,881 kilometers of tracks, 62% of them were narrow tracks to ease transportation through sugar cane plantations and mills.In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cuba increased its sea freighter fleet. The former Soviet Union and Spain used to provide transoceanic vessels and some smaller fishing boats.Cuba’s national airline, Cubana de Aviación, makes both national and international flights.
Cuba is a founding member of the United Nations and deploys a hands-on participation in most of its organizations and specialized agencies, including UNCTAD, ONUDI, FAO, OMPI, PNUD and the OMI. In the trade front, Cuba is a member state of the World Trade Organization since 1995.
