It is striking that in announcing the measure, the State Department clarifies that importers “must obtain documentary evidence that demonstrates the entrepreneur’s independent status,” and notes that “This is another measure intended to support the ability of the Cuban people to gain greater control over their own lives and determine their country’s future.”

What the State Department fails to say is that having unilaterally stripped Cuba of its previous treatment as the most-favored nation – after decreeing the blockade – a position rightfully ours as a founding state of the World Trade Organization, in order to export any Cuban product to the United States, higher customs duties must be paid, which make their import to this country practically impossible.

The State Department also ignores the fact that the Agrarian Reform Law, enacted after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, made more than 200,000 peasant families land owners, and that the Cuban state has since implemented a program for the productive, economic and social development of the rural population of our country and ensured production assistance, access to credit, a secure market for their produce and other social benefits.

No one should believe that a Cuban small farmer can directly export to the United States. For this to be possible, Cuban foreign trade enterprises must participate and financial transactions need to be in U.S. dollars, issues which so far have not been settled.

We are conscious that the objective of these measures is to influence Cuban farmers and separate them from our state.

Cuban small farmers do not fear changes, provided they are of our own making. This is the powerful reason why the continued aim of the government of the United States to destroy the unity of the people of Cuba can not be permitted, as this would destroy a revolutionary process that has provided us with a participatory democracy, freedom, sovereignty and independence.

Cuban farmers are members of this socialist civil society and exist as part of the state, which represents the power of the people, and not in opposition to it. Together with the workers and all our people, we face the imperialist policy objective of promoting the division and disintegration of Cuban society, which is what is intended with a measure such as that recently announced.

If the government of the United States really wants to contribute to the welfare of Cubans, what it must do is definitively lift the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed for more than 50 years, which is the main obstacle to the development of Cuba.

Cuban farmers reaffirm our loyalty to our revolutionary state against all risks and challenges, and will continue to build a prosperous and sustainable socialism, with all and for the good of all, with the patriotic commitment to continue producing for the people.

(Granma)

The first countries to receive the fruit from Cuba were Italy and France, according to Jorge Sánchez, head of exports for the Ceballos food processing company.

Speaking with AIN, he said that the goal is to increase exports of the high quality MD-2 variety, the first seedlings of which were brought to the province from Costa Rica some five years ago.

State cultivators and small farmers here have specialized in raising the fruit, and some have reached productivity of 100 tons per hectare, four times that achieved with the Red Spanish and Smooth Cayenne cultivars, planted for the local market and the processing industry.

Sánchez reported that 730 metric tons have been exported thus far this year and adequate plantings are under cultivation to reach the 920 tons projected for 2015.

Engineer Reinaldo de Ávila, in charge of fruit development for the company, emphasized that, while the MD-2 pineapple is of excellent quality, it requires careful cultivation, including proper drainage, level soils, aerial irrigation, chemical fertilizer, and pest control.

Despite these exacting requirements, plans have been made to expand plantings to 2,500 hectares by 2020, with a view toward increasing exports, supporting the national economy, and raising fruit farmers’ average income, which is now over 1,300 pesos a month, he said. Higher salaries have been made possible by increased productivity and success with mango and guava cultivation, the two most developed fruit crops in the region.

Pineapple has been grown in Ciego de Ávila for over 100 years, with 30,000 tons produced in the 1980s. Since then, harvests have fallen dramatically given the lack of necessary supplies, a result of the criminal U.S. blockade of Cuba.

(Granma)